


Falling Down

by angeltalk



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Genre: Adventure, Angst and Humor, Blood and Injury, F/F, F/M, Flashbacks, Fluff and Angst, Horror, M/M, Post-Canon, Post-Gaea, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Post-War, post-BoO
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-19
Updated: 2016-02-24
Packaged: 2018-03-18 13:29:14
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 13
Words: 51,131
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3571367
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/angeltalk/pseuds/angeltalk
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's been a few months since the fall of Gaea. Percy's been spending his time around camp, hanging out with his girlfriend, and trying to forget some of the not-so-stellar parts of their recent journey. As it turns out, there's one part of the quest he can't forget. Tartarus. Little does he know, Tartarus may have left a bigger impact than a memory. One that may cost him his life.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. I Dream About Dead People

**Author's Note:**

> This is the first fanfic I've ever written! This story is written from the POV's of multiple characters from the series and will progress through what happened to Percy and friends after the war - including the effects of Tartarus on Percy, Annabeth, and Nico, and even a new Quest to finally set everything right. I don't want to give anything away, so I'll stop while I'm ahead!
> 
> This fic was origionally posted on ffn.net but I decided it should be on here too!

Percy woke with a violent shudder, his voice catching in his throat as he attempted to scream. He wildly threw off the bedsheets, scrambling for a weapon to face his oncoming attacker. Percy drew Riptide from his pocket, sweat dripping down his face. It was only after a minute of standing with his blade pointed at nothing that Percy realized he was alone in Cabin Three at Camp Half Blood. Slowly, he sank back down onto his bunk.

Yeah, it was common for demigods to have more than a healthy amount of wild dreams, it was really no big deal. But Percy hadn't been having his regular run-of-the-mill demigod-nightmare-helping since his tryst through Tartarus. Now his nightmares consisted of horrifying reruns of enemies he'd encountered down there, terrifying images of Annabeth dying as he's unable to move. Drowning in pools of his own blood. Drowning in pools of his friends blood. Things he'd hoped he'd never see again. Things he'd never seen yet his mind created out of his worst fears.

Yeah. Fun stuff. Percy knew Annabeth was suffering the same kind of nightmares in her own cabin, but they never talked about it. Their unspoken philosophy was to do their best to forget, and life would get better.

Recently, though, with the war with Gaea being over there was nothing to distract him from fun dream torture. He'd woken up screaming every night this week. Percy dropped his face into his hands. He knew he should talk to someone about it. Maybe like, get it off his mind or something by just telling someone, then maybe it'd go away. Unfortunately for Percy, he wasn't the kind of guy who went around dumping his problems onto others. Actually, he had an annoying habit of taking on his friends' problems instead. So basically, Percy wasn't good at opening up like that to people; it just wasn't something he did.

He got up and made his way to the bathroom. Apparently while the seven had been out on the Argo II, the campers had installed bathrooms in all the cabins. Percy was definitely not complaining.

He turned on the sink and let the water flow over his hands for a minute before splashing his face with it. Honestly, just dunking his face into the saltwater spring in the other room would probably have the same effect, but Percy was too distracted to feel uncivilized. He was glad Tyson wasn't at camp right now, the big guy would be worried out of his mind. Percy looked into the mirror, leaning closer to get a good look at his eyes, which were red. It looked kind of Christmas-y, his sea green eyes contrasting with the sickly puffy redness of the whites of his eyes.

Percy splashed his face one more time for good measure, turning off the water and heading back into his room. A few days ago he'd considered asking Mr. D if he had some kind of godly sleeping pills and if Percy could have some. He didn't, of course, unsure of what the god of wine would say back to him.

Deciding that sleep would be useless at this point (more like he was tired but just didn't want any nightmares,) Percy concluded that taking a trip to Jason's cabin at two in the morning was a great idea.

He snuck quietly across the lawn. The Harpies would be out, and Percy wasn't too keen on becoming lunch for ugly bird women who reminded him of every mean lunch lady he'd ever met. Reaching the Zeus Cabin, he looked around behind him to make sure nobody was following. The door opened with a click, and Percy let himself inside.

The interior of the Zeus cabin was similar to the Poseidon Cabin, just minus the soothing salt water pool and with the addition of a Hippie Zeus statue that made Percy wonder how Jason slept at night. Speaking of Jason, Percy noted that he was sound asleep in his bunk, turned on his side facing the wall. The blonde superman had been traveling pretty diligently between both camps recently, so it was no wonder he was passed out like a log. Percy wasn't supposed to go to New Rome to begin college for another two months, so he had been staying at Camp Half Blood to help out.

Percy was about to go sit on Jason until he woke up when he noticed a sudden movement in the corner of the room.

"Hey Percy."

Percy practically tripped over his feet and just barely avoided falling over backwards onto Jason.

"Nico! You scared me!" Percy whispered frantically, "What are you doing here?"

" _Ssshhhh_! Don't be so loud! And I was just about to ask you the same thing." Nico whispered, much quieter than Percy's whispering.

"Uhhh, just coming to see my bro Jason. Isn't a guy allowed to come see his bro unannounced at two in the morning sometimes?"

"Well, uh-"

"So what about you? What are you doing here?" Percy said, cutting him off.

"Im just- hey, stop that!" Nico scowled as Percy began waggling his eyebrows, "It's not like that!"

"Dude, are you like, watching him sleep or something? That's adorable. And kind of creepy." Percy faked a gasp, "Maybe we should wake him up to tell him what you've been up to." He started reaching towards the snoozing guy on the bed.

"No!"

"Chill, chill, I wasn't actually going to, man. I'm not that mean." Percy laughed, "But really….what  _are_  you doing in here?"

"Look….forget it. I've gotta go anyway and it's not important." Nico scoffed, walking across the room to the door. Percy watched him silently, remembering the vague but horrendous things Nico had occasionally mentioned about his descent alone into Tartarus.

"Was it the nightmares?" Percy asked softly.

Nico stopped just as his hand hit the doorknob. He let loose a little sigh and turned to face Percy, the moonlight coming in from the windows made it just bright enough to make out the dark circles under his eyes, his tired physique.

"Yeah." He whispered, glancing at Jason and scrunching his eyebrows.

"Yeah, me too." Percy sighed, moving over to the bunk on the other side of the room and sat down, "I was gonna wake Jason to ask if he wanted to break into the Big House to play some video games. You know, to take my mind off stuff."

Percy heard Nico stifle a laugh and looked up at him, "What?"

"You wanted to break into the Big House at 2:30 AM to play video games? Did you think Chiron was just gonna let you do that?" Nico leaned against the wall with his hand over his mouth, "Forget Chiron, Mr. D would feed you to the harpies."

"Hey! At least my ideas are better than staring at blonde superman suck his thumb all night."

"That is so not what was happening."

"Oh, why? Could it be? Is Jason not-"

"Don't you dare."

"Your-"

"PERCY."

"Type?"

"JACKSON."

Percy made an incredulous expression, crossing his arms and trying not to laugh. Gods, Nico was so easy to rile up it was almost like a sport. Nico threw up his hands in frustration, muttering stuff in Italian under his breath. Initially, when Nico told Percy he wasn't his type, Percy had badgered Annabeth about it for days asking how could he not be his type. Why wasn't he his type? Was he Annabeth's type? He eventually shut up when Annabeth reminded him they were dating.

Anyway, he was pretty much over it, especially considering he was never interested in Nico like that in the first place. Their relationship since then had gone back to normal, as normal as a friendship between two of the world's most powerful demigods can be. Add Jason into that mix and you had either a perfect recipe for some serious fun, or a one way ticket to Tartarus. Scratch that. A one way ticket to the Underworld. Percy didn't want to think about Tartarus. And speaking of Jason, he was starting to shift under his covers.

Nico sighed and rubbed his temples, "I should get going, Hazel wants me in New Rome by morning."

"Alright dude, Iris message me if you need anything." Percy rubbed the back of his neck, "Or like, if you want to talk about, you know, the nightm-"

"Yeah. I will." Nico said, cutting Percy off. Percy knew that 'I will' really meant 'I will definitely not', but it was okay with him. He knew Nico would come out of the shadows when he was ready; and open up to his friends about his nightmares when he was comfortable. No need to rush. Percy guessed he and Nico were kind of similar in that way, but he knew that Nico had probably been through a hell of a lot worse: not just down in Tartarus but also in the time he spent slowly dying in that jar.

As the door clicked behind Nico, Percy was left alone with a snoozing blonde superman. Percy put his elbows on his knees, watching the soft rise and fall of Jason's breathing. Maybe Nico had actually come in here to watch Jason sleep. It was calming, if you could put it out of your mind that it was slightly creepy. And on the plus side, Jason was the only one of his close friends who wouldn't think twice if he woke up with Percy staring at him from the other bed. Percy scooted back against the pillows and played with the hem of his shirt as he listened to Jason's rhythmic breathing and fought off drowsiness.

0000000000

He was standing in a dull barren field, the air was thick and noxious - just breathing it in was making him light headed. Percy glanced around nervously, the red haze of fog hanging around him making it hard to see anything. He coughed into his sleeve, recoiling when he smelled the metallic scent of blood on his clothing. Percy stumbled backwards, breathing heavy. He glanced at his other hand, and realized slowly that he was holding Riptide. A really, really bloody Riptide. Percy gagged, dropping it in disgust. His gaze was torn away as he heard a muffled cry.

Percy's horrified gaze landed on Leo, who was on his knees with a sword - Riptide - in his chest. His eyes wide and glazed, he stared up at Percy in terror. Percy began to shake and stared at his hands. Why was Riptide in Leo's chest? Had Percy done that? Why was Leo even here? Wasn't he already dead? Percy's shaking gaze landed back on the curly haired boy in front of him.

"It's your fault." Leo said in a raspy voice.

"Leo - I'm sorry, I-I didn't - what's happening? Wh-what happened?" Percy gasped, falling to his knees in front of the mechanic.

"It's your fault I'm dead. If you had fought Gaea with us this wouldn't have happened. This is all your fault."

Leo's blood suddenly started flowing faster, his brown eyes locked into Percy's like an inferno.

"I trusted you."

Leo's form burst into a thick wave of blood and ash, filling up the field as Percy stumbled and splashed to his feet.

"We all trusted you."

Leo's disembodied voice rose to a scream as Percy's head went under and blood filled his lungs.

0000000000

"Percy? Percy!"

Percy's eyes flew open and he gasped for breath, feeling himself shuddering violently, "Jason," He croaked out.

Jason was leaning over him on the little cot, his eyebrows scrunched together in worry, "Hey," He said, putting a hand on Percy's forehead, "You look terrible, are you alright?"

"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine."

Jason gave him a skeptical look, " _Sure_  you're fine, that's why I woke up to you screaming and tossing like the bedsheets were eating you for breakfast." He sighed, running a hand over the back of his neck, "Look, Percy… Piper told me about the nightmares. She heard from Annabeth."

Percy stayed silent, biting his bottom lip slightly. He pushed himself up, brushing off Jason's hand. "I'm fine. It was nothing, trust me dude." He stood up, stretching his arms in fake calmness. Percy willed himself to stop shaking. He hadn't meant to fall asleep in here; that was a big mistake.

"Percy…"

"Jason, it's fine. It was just a dumb nightmare." Percy smiled, pretending to rub sleep out of his eyes.

"Then why were you in here?" Jason said, crossing his arms and leaning against the side of the bed, "You must have come in here really early this morning and I want to know why."

"I was bored! I was gonna ask if you wanted to play some video games but I fell asleep waiting for you to wake up."

Jason just looked at him. Percy looked back, raising his eyebrows in defiance.

"Percy, I'm worried about you. Annabeth told Piper the nightmares have been getting bad lately and she wakes up in a cold sweat almost every night. I'd be willing to bet that the same thing is happening to you. I'm not stupid, Percy, just let me help you." Jason said softly, taking a step towards the son of Poseidon.

Percy ran a hand over his face, turning to face Jason. "Look, I'm not good at this stuff-"

"I don't care. It doesn't matter if our days on the Argo II are over, we're still a team and we still need to look out for each other."

Percy stared at Jason for a few seconds, and then sighed and quietly murmured, "It was about Leo."

He saw Jason physically freeze. Over the past few months it was almost taboo to talk about Jason's deceased best friend while he was around. Same with Piper. Out of everyone, they probably took his death the worst. Jason had locked himself in the Zeus Cabin for days, while Piper went into the woods to Bunker Nine and spent a week there by herself. They had been Leo's best friends, and everyone knew not to talk about him anywhere near either of them.

"What happened?" Jason asked quietly, sinking himself down onto the bed, eyebrows creased and eyes focused.

"He was…He…I- I saw him dying, like, in front of me and…" Percy decided to leave the part about Riptide being lodged into the mechanic's ribcage, "He talked about how it was…my fault..that he was dead. He said he trusted me and- Jason please, don't make me say this stuff."

Jason looked like he was on the edge of his seat. "No, no no. It's okay, keep going."

Percy bit his lip again. He didn't want to upset Jason, didn't want to talk about the dream and make it seem like it was all about himself, and also didn't want to talk about it for the sole reason that he didn't want to. Percy Jackson didn't have problems. On the occasion that Percy Jackson did have problems, he handled them himself.

"Look, he basically told me it was my fault Gaea killed him and that I let everyone down for letting him die."

"But…Percy, you weren't even there when he died." Jason's voice caught a little at the word 'died', "There was nothing you could have done."

Percy sighed as Jason patted the spot next to him, gesturing that he wanted him to sit next to him. Percy obliged, flopping down next to him.

"There was though. I could have been there. I SHOULD have been there. It could have been me instead of him; there was absolutely no reason for Leo to die. If I had been up there, fighting with Gaea with you guys I could have-"

"Percy."

Percy was vaguely aware of his voice rising in hysteria with each passing second, "I could have saved him, Jason, he thinks it's my fault and he hates me because I didn't save him - it drowned me. It drowned me, and it wasn't water. But it was like, blood. Really thick, hot blood and it kept pouring out of him," Jason put a firm hand on Percy's shoulder and Percy jerked away, "His voice didn't even have a body it was just there in my ears and the blood from where I stabbed him was everywhere. I don't remember stabbing him - it was just there, in his stomach. Riptide, I mean, but I didn't put it there! I never wanted any of this to happen. Now Leo's in Tartarus and I stabbed him with Riptide and-"

Jason pulled Percy to him, pushing Poseidon's son's face to his shoulder.

"Listen to me, none of what you saw is real. Leo's death wasn't your fault, and he's not in Tartarus either. It was just a dream."

Percy's face went even further into Jason's shoulder, if even possible. His voice lowered back down to it's normal tone, his rising panic snuffed out at the physical contact Jason made with him. "It happens every night. Every night it's something new. I don't know how to deal with it, man. I just want it to stop."

Jason slowly rubbed circles into Percy's back. Percy knew this was super embarrassing. Here he was, being held by a buff blonde glasses dude whining about stupid nightmares. He felt like he'd regressed by about twelve years. Percy really needed to pull it together. Lifting his face from Jason's shoulder, he sat back and took a deep breath.

"I know, dude. And I'm gonna help you through this, alright? If you'll let me anyway." Jason said, scrunching his eyebrows together.

"I know, I know. And I know you're right about it just being a dream… it just… felt so real."

Jason pulled Percy towards him, but this time into a hug instead of a face-shoulder embrace. "Hey, you're gonna be alright. Both you and Annabeth. I'll never know what you went through down there, but if you need anybody to talk to, I'm your guy. That goes for Nico too."

Percy hugged him back, honestly so grateful for Jason being there.

0000000000

The next morning, Percy woke up in his own cabin and found himself seemingly free of nightmares. He stretched his arms out, feeling rested for the first time in what seemed like ages. Maybe talking to Jason really had done some good; even with the image of Leo on his knees still etched into his brain.

Getting dressed quickly, he made his way out of Cabin Three and outside into the dusty sunshine of morning. The camp was slowly awakening, only a few campers already out and about. Looking out across the field, Percy could see movement around the Athena Cabin, and decided he should check on Annabeth.

After Tartarus, Percy's Ultra-Super-Protective senses had been activated when it came to Annabeth. He almost lost her way too many times for comfort. They were practically soulmates for life, best friends since they were twelve, lovers since they were sixteen.

As he neared the cabin, he could hear the distinct sound of the shuffling of papers and chatting of campers from inside the walls. The door opened as he got closer, revealing a familiar head of cascading blonde princess curls.

"Hey, Wise Girl." Percy smiled as she turned around and grinned back.

"Seaweed Brain, you're up early." She gave him a quick kiss on the cheek.

"Yeah," He rubbed the back of his neck bashfully, "I guess so."

Annabeth grinned at him again before lacing her fingers through his. He gently tugged her behind the cabin, her face showing the telltale signs of confusion as he sighed and ran a hand through his hair.

"Listen…So I was talking to Jason last night, and he heard from Piper that you told her your nightmares are getting worse." Percy said in a lowered voice, making sure that nobody could hear them, even though they were alone behind the Athena Cabin.

Annabeth took a deep breath, running her thumb over Percy's knuckles, "I mean, I guess it's been getting worse, but it's really not a big deal, Percy, it's nothing I can't handle."

Percy leaned in and kissed her chastely, pulling back and putting his hands on either side of her face, "Alright, but still, tell me if it gets any worse."

Annabeth gave him a little smile, reaching up and running her hand through his hair, "Same goes for you, Seaweed Brain."

Percy smiled back at her and fought the urge to cross his fingers behind his back, "Definitely."

0000000000

The day continued peacefully, nothing out of the ordinary happening throughout the day. Percy and Annabeth usually went through their days like this - only leaving each other's side when they needed to. They were both too paranoid, but never let it show in front of the campers. To anyone except their close friends, they were the picture perfect calm and collected couple. Percy was okay with that.

After the day was over and after Percy had kissed Annabeth goodnight, he found himself staring at his reflection again back in Cabin Three. His eyes were no longer red, upon inspection, but he was still thinking about what Annabeth had said.

When they had gone to the dining pavilion for lunch, Annabeth had brought up Tartarus one last time. She told him she had done some research and nosed around in records of demigods who had been to Tartarus and back. The list was obviously very limited, the most recent besides Percy, Annabeth, and Nico was sometime around 100 AD.

Anyway, the most disturbing thing that Annabeth discovered was records that said things about the after-effects of surviving through Tartarus. Apparently, survivors had begun to show signs of a strange kind of sickness a few months after their return. Unfortunately, there was no other information besides that.

It was slightly worrying, but with any luck, whatever sickness it was wouldn't affect him or Annabeth. There were plenty of demigods thousands of years before them who had been down there for way longer.

He realized suddenly with a start that he didn't actually know how long Nico had been in Tartarus. The question never really crossed his mind before now. What if Nico was sick or something? Could Hades kids get sick? He wasn't sure, but he had to find out. As soon as possible, which meant tomorrow. Percy slowly walked back into the main room, sinking down onto his mattress. There was a chance that Nico hadn't just been in Jason's room to listen to his breathing. He could have been coming to Jason to get help or something. Percy scratched his head. Nico would long be in New Rome by now. Tomorrow he could Iris Message him and see if he was okay. Yeah. Percy shuffled himself under the covers, praying to the Gods that he'd have no nightmares tonight.

0000000000

Percy's prayers were answered. Well, kind of. His dream started out with a girl looking out from an island. The island was vaguely familiar to Percy, like he'd been there before, a really long time ago. The girl waved up at the sky as the scene changed, this time to Leo sitting on the beach, grinning at someone out of Percy's line of sight. Leo jumped to his feet suddenly, gesturing to the hidden person to follow him before he looked straight at Percy and gave him a thumbs up.

Leo moved in slow motion and in a voice that sounded like it was underwater, he said, "I'll be home soon."

0000000000

Percy jolted awake, sitting up and breathing fast, staring down at his hands. That was one of the most peaceful yet eerie dreams he's had to date. Was this dream about Leo also some sort of illusion made up by his mind? Or was it a sign? That Leo was actually still alive or something. Percy swung his legs out of bed, noticing with a glance out the window that it was even earlier than the day before. Damn. He wasn't even a morning person. Maybe he really was sick.

The worst part was, he wasn't even tired. Shrugging and changing into a simple CHB tee and shorts, he made his way barefoot out of his cabin. As he shut the door behind him and breathed in the cool morning air, he started walking towards the lake.

If there was anywhere that could calm his thoughts and fears about small Latino ADHD demigods, it was the lake. The water would sooth his mind and maybe even help him figure his dreams out.

First off, on the very probable suspicion that the dream was just his imagination playing tricks on him, that was just plain cruel. On the other hand, if it was an actual demigod-power-influenced dream, then the chances of Leo actually being alive and trying to return to Camp Half-Blood were very real.

Percy realized with a frown that he'd had not one but two consecutive dreams about the mechanic in the past few days. They'd never really been close, especially because initially Leo hadn't made a very good impression on Percy at all. They'd only really talked a few times, and while they were on good terms, they weren't exactly BFFS. Well, when he was alive at least. Unless his dreams were real and Leo was alive. Unless his dreams were messing with him. Unless…. Percy really needed to stop thinking, he was making his brain hurt.

He reached the edge of the lake, taking one of the ropes from a canoe and untying it. He climbed in, tucking the rope underneath one of the seats. Percy settled himself on the center seat, feeling the broad, well-sanded wood beneath his fingertips. He closed his deep sea green eyes, willing the water around the canoe to take it out into the lake. With a pull in his gut, the small boat dipped into the water, rocking lazily as Percy hoisted the oars into motion.

Yeah, he could probably more easily just move the canoe through the water by will, but he wasn't really feeling it right now. He wanted to feel the oars on his hands, a pressure like an anchor keeping him grounded.

Percy sailed far out onto the water, letting the canoe slow to an easy lulled wade. He breathed in the deep smell of water and algae. Percy rubbed one of his thumbs in circles on one of the oars. There was nothing he wished for more than to just have everything go back to normal. If there was one thing Percy missed most, it was probably the ability to relax. It had been a few months since his descent already, and though he was doing better than he had when he emerged, it still wasn't the same. Nevertheless, Percy wasn't one to mope. In private, maybe, but never in public. He'd never let one bad thing that happened ruin him, no matter how bad it was. He had to stay unbreakable, indomitable, for his friends.

Percy let his gaze wander over the surface of the lake. Sleepy multicolored fish came up tentatively to the side of the small boat, mouthing the wood before swimming away. Bits and pieces of long freshwater seaweed could vaguely be seen below the water's surface, waving slowly as if saying hello to the son of Poseidon. The sun was still dipped halfway under the strawberry fields. A peaceful morning. Percy turned his head as he heard the yawning of naiads, who noticed him and gave him their cute flirty little half-waves as they giggled sleepily amongst themselves. Percy gave them a small smile and wave before stretching out his arms in the morning sun.

The calm of the water and atmosphere really did calm his nerves. He was feeling more at ease than he had in months. Percy was grateful for that.

0000000000

Percy realized he'd dozed off about three seconds after waking up. He glanced around blearily, noticing it was only slightly lighter and warmer than when he had nodded off, which meant he was only napping for about a half an hour or less. Grabbing the oars, he decided it was time to return to shore and sat up.

The pain hit him before his mind could even register. Percy doubled over unwillingly, the canoe rocking with his movement. It was unlike anything he'd ever felt before, a pain starting in his gut and slowly, excruciatingly, spreading both upwards and downwards. He let go of the oars frantically and gripped the side of the boat as his other arm circled his middle. What was going on? Both his mind and body screamed as he entered a form of panic. He needed to get to shore, get to Annabeth, Chiron, someone, anyone. It didn't matter as long as it was before his insides exploded or something. Desperately, Percy tried moving the canoe by will, nothing happening except more pain and the lake erupting into waves. He couldn't control his power. Great. Maybe the water would help? Yeah. His brain was getting increasingly more hazy with searing pain. Son of Posiedon. Water. Son of Posiedon plus water equals good.

"Please, please, pleasepleaseplease _please_ ," Percy gritted out of his teeth as he jerkily shoved his hand off the side of the boat and into the water. He was gonna need to get his whole body in somehow. He tried to stand up, his vision swimming as he tasted a warm metallic substance in his mouth. Great. This whole experience was wonderful. Percy coughed suddenly, his chest contracting painfully. His hands flew to his mouth as he leaned over himself and his shaking legs tried to support him. The coughs wracked him like he was being hit over and over, he felt like a big sickly punching bag. When he could finally breathe, he pulled his hands off his mouth to find them coated in blood. Hooooly Shit. This was bad. Like on a scale of Piper-Forgot-To-Turn-Off-Her-Charmspeak bad to Jason-Fell-Asleep-MidFlight-Again bad, this was somewhere around the second option. Except worse. At least Percy thought it was worse.

His dizzy vision could make out a few naiads pointing in concern at him but suddenly there was no sound. Just him and the feeling of being torn to shreds. Rest in peace, Perseus Jackson, died at the age of 17, from stomach pains, he thought blearily.

Wait. The water began to thrash beneath the boat as Percy's eyes widened and he felt a shiver down his spine. Was this the sickness Annabeth mentioned? Percy coughed again, blood pouring from his mouth. He needed to get into the water. ASAP.  _Now_. He stood up as best he could, finding the edge of the canoe with difficulty. Glancing up, he found the source of the waves that rocked the tiny boat.

A bronze dragon, thrashing around the water, the world still silent to Percy's ears. He stumbled as the boat rocked more as he blinked rapidly. He was starting to feel increasingly nauseous. What was he about to do just now? Why was he out on the lake? What was happening? Percy sputtered more blood out of his mouth. He didn't know where he was. The world felt like it was turning upside down. Percy felt his arm jerk to the side, someone was in front of him. He looked through lidded eyes at a familiar face.  _Leo?_  What was he doing here? Wasn't he  _dead?_  Percy blinked slowly as the brown eyed boy began to silently shout at him. Percy felt like he was watching a film, not even feeling himself begin to sway or the pressure of Leo's hands on his shoulders. The pain in his belly was white hot, so blistering he wasn't sure anymore if it was hot or cold. He must be dreaming, or something. Leo continued to shake him and scream in slow motion, his eyes wild with panic. Percy couldn't understand why. Was this Leo an illusion? Wasn't Leo in Tartarus? Yeah…in Tartarus. Because Percy ran him through with a sword. He really should apologize for that.

Percy's vision went from double to triple, and the last thing he saw was Leo desperately trying to get him to respond when the world turned inside out and he began to fall in slow motion. Tartarus. He was falling into Tartarus, the thought echoed without sound through his skull. Falling down, down, down. Again.


	2. A Really, Really, Really Long Day

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Some things are starting to heat up....

His eyes opened to dim light filtering in through an open window, fresh air drifting in and caressing his face.

As he came to, there were only a few things Percy was absolutely sure of. Firstly, he was in the infirmary in the Big House. Secondly, he had a very limited understanding of why (judging by the IV drip in his arm and several bandages around his middle, he was injured somehow). And last of all, he either had the strangest dream of all ages or the Hazel gave Leo some tips on zombie-ism.

He shifted so he was buried deeper in the sheets, taking deep calming breaths. He'd been a total and complete mess on and off these couple days, and it wasn't really his style. Percy bit his lip in frustration, closing his eyes. He didn't even know why he was in here. Probably cause he hit his head during a spar or something. If he kept this up he'd create a legend of uselessness so great it would rival the time when Jason got hit in the face by a brick. Percy laughed dryly to himself. Jason and his brick, a beautiful love story, you could say they really connected.

Percy opened his eyes as he heard booming and crashing from the room outside the infirmary. A familiar blonde head of curls peeked in the door. Percy let out a breath he didn't know he was holding.

"Percy! What are you doing?! Why didn't you tell anyone you were awake?!" That familiar blonde head of curls scolded, scrambling through the doorway.

Ah, yes, thank the gods for Annabeth Chase.

"Sorry," Percy grinned, "Getting knocked out takes a toll on remembering to do things like that."

Annabeth grimaced a little at that, coming next to the bedside, "Percy… you didn't get knocked out."

"What do you mean?"

"You, uh," She shrugged one of her shoulders, playing with a lock of her hair absentmindedly, "I don't know exactly what happened, I was hoping you'd remember something so we could try and fi-"

"Annabeth. What's going on."

Annabeth looked like she was trying to remain calm now, "When they brought you in, you were in really bad shape. Like… Oh, I'll just show you."

Annabeth's hands pulled back the sheets and moved slowly to the bandages across his middle. Percy watched in cold anticipation as she pulled back the cloths and revealed what was underneath.

Bruises. Deep, black and purple bruises. And red lines that looked like his guts were scratched from the inside out. It kind of reminded him of some of horror movie about aliens living in people's bodies. Percy's breath caught. So the pain wasn't a dream.

"What…..what does it mean?" Percy asked tentatively, very gently prodding the marks as Annabeth swatted his hand and replaced the bandages.

"It means our time in Tartarus is having more than just mental affects on you…Remember the fire water from the river we drank to stay alive? I'm suspecting the residue from it and whatever amount your body absorbed is… attacking your organs." Annabeth said, sounding extremely levelheaded, but Percy could tell from experience that she was struggling to stay calm.

"Okay, that's a lot to take in. But like, why is it just me? Shouldn't it be happening to you? Or Nico?"

"Well, for now I'm assuming it's because you took in more of it than I did. When you like, almost drowned, and all." She said that part with a wince, "And Nico probably because he's hardwired for underworld stuff, and also maybe the pomegranates he ate in that jar neutralized it."

"Huh." Surprisingly, he wasn't feeling panicked. Maybe the feelings would come later because he was in shock or something. Or maybe he was on painkillers. Could be either. Annabeth, however looked worlds more anxious than Percy was. She'd started to play with his hair instead of her own.

"But yeah. We've already given you nectar and ambrosia and mortal painkillers. Any more of any of that shit and bad stuff would happen." She said, answering his suspicions, "We've been working on bringing in some more medicines these couple days and we've even considered asking Apollo to come down-"

"Wait, wait, wait. Hold on a second here, Wise Girl. How many days are we talking about here?"

"You've been asleep for a week, Percy. Didn't I mention that?"

"No."

"We didn't know what to do at first because here comes Leo to the Big House, scaring the living daylights out of everyone, and if that wasn't enough; he's terrified and yelling and carrying you like you were dead or something with your head hanging over his arm like sleeping beauty gone wrong." Annabeth didn't notice immediately that Percy had gone still at the mention of Leo's name, "There was so much blood…" She trailed off, looking off into the distance as if remembering it.

So Leo really was alive. And at camp. It wasn't a dream. Holy shit.

"Leo's alive." Percy deadpanned.

"Leo's alive." Annabeth agreed softly.

"Leo's alive…" Percy repeated quietly, as if trying to convince himself. Memories of the previous events attacked Percy's mind like a tidal wave. The intensity of what happened began to hit him. Leo was alive and home with them. Percy was probably dying and would be dead already if Leo hadn't saved him. He willed his breath not to speed up. Heroes were calm and collected, even in the face of danger. And especially in the face of strange Tartarus mystery sicknesses.

"Calypso's here too." Annabeth said with a little smile, "She might be able to help you. You know, with weird goddess powers or something."

"…Yeah." Percy whispered, suddenly feeling more weak and helpless than he had been in a very long time. It made him uncomfortable.

"…Alright," Annabeth said softly, Percy knew that she knew him well enough to be able to read his emotions from his body language, "I'll come check on you later, okay Seaweed Brain? Don't leave the infirmary either, no hero stuff, alright?"

Annabeth gave him a little smile before pressing her lips to his ear, "I love you," she whispered, before walking quietly out the door and shutting it behind her.

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Percy spent the rest of the afternoon rotating between dozing off and staring into space, with little interruptions that consisted of Annabeth checking on him. It was like limbo. A really slow limbo with not enough to do and too much to think about.

He spent his time examining the infirmary room. He sitting up in the bed, he noted that the room was a dull pastel yellow color. It reminded Percy of snot. The Infirmary wasn't very spacious, but still had room for about five other medical beds along with med stations positioned along the walls. The Apollo campers certainly marked their territory too, especially with the decorations. Bows and quivers were piled by the doors, and Percy spotted a stray trumpet by his foot.

A big poster of Apollo giving a thumbs smiled down at Percy from the wall with teeth so white they could blind a bat. He was standing with the sun behind his back and with a caption of, 'Welcome to the Infirmary! If you're here, you're probably injured and/or dying! Congratulations!'.

Percy raised his eyebrows. Well, at least they didn't beat around the bush.

Truth be told, the only reason Percy wasn't sleeping right now was because he was too afraid to. What if something bad happened again? He took off the IV, lifted his shirt and pulled down the bandages tentatively. Still bruised, still red. Still terrifying.

He pulled the bandages back into place and pushed his shirt back down. He wasn't in the clothes he last remembered wearing, now he was in a plain white t-shirt and baby blue thunderbolt boxers. Wait. Thunderbolts? Did that mean… oh Gods. Percy felt his face turn bright red as the realization that somebody had undressed and redressed his unconscious body. And instead of getting his clothes, they put him in Jason's clothes. Oh no, not just his clothes, his goddamn underwear.

So in short, he was quite literally, in Jason's pants. Percy wasn't sure how he felt about that.

Turning back to the bed he was sitting on, Percy found that he overlooked yet another big detail about his new Infirmary living arrangements. An envelope sat on the pillow he'd originally been snoozing on. The pillow was nothing out of the ordinary, but the sheets were a different story. Bright pink, soft, comfortable, warm, 'Baby's First Blankie' written in huge flourishing cursive across the center. Percy resisted the urge to slam his face into the wall and stared blankly, picking up the envelope and ripping it open, unfolding the paper inside.

_'Dear Peter Jackson,_

_As you have most likely not noticed, you have been admitted to the Camp Infirmary. You are not permitted to leave until you are deemed well enough to be introduced back to society, or if you die. Have a spectacular day! :)_

_-D'_

Percy groaned out loud, throwing himself down on his princess pink Baby's First Blankie.

It was gonna be a long day.

0000000000

It was a few hours later before anyone checked in on him again, so when there was a little knock on the Infirmary door Percy got a little more excited for company than he'd like to admit.

To his surprise, it wasn't Annabeth this time.

Will Solace strolled into the room, holding a clipboard and grinning with good nature at Percy. Percy, who was now sitting on the back corner of the bunk, gave him a smile back.

"Hey, Will."

"Hey, Percy, how ya doin'?" Will asked, placing the clipboard down on the bed and sitting down with it. "I'm just checking up on you, I was gonna do it when Annabeth told me you were awake but I figured I'd give you some time to wake up."

Percy felt like he had to force himself to keep smiling. Sure, Will was an alright guy. He knew that Nico seemed to think pretty well of him, but in all honesty, Percy wasn't sure he completely trusted Nico's judge of character. Ever since the Labyrinth years ago…Yeah. Nico wound up putting his trust with some pretty shady characters. Will had helped a lot in New York during the war with Kronos though, and he was the Apollo counselor, so Percy decided that at least should count for something.

But still. There was something about Will's smile that seemed off to the son of Poseidon and he couldn't put his finger on what exactly it was.

"Thanks man. I appreciate it."

"Don't mention it." Will said, flipping through the papers on his clipboard, "It's good you're awake though, your friends were worried sick, ya know?"

Speaking of his friends, Percy realized that Annabeth had been the only one to come and see him while he was awake.

"So uh… where are they then? My friends, I mean." He asked, just a little tentatively.

"You're probably wondering why they haven't come to see you, huh?" Will flourished his pen and held it diligently in the air, "You're banned from visitors until we make sure you're stable. Except Annabeth cause she's impossible to control and would have pummeled me if i didn't let her. Doctor's orders!"

Huh. That made sense.

"So, I'm here to check up on you and make sure you're stable. So now I gotta do some stuff that's gonna feel weird."

Percy assumed he was used to the adjective 'weird', but still wasn't pleasantly surprised when Will started prodding his stomach after instructing him to take off his shirt and lay down.

It was painful, each prod gave Percy a little jolt, like a sharp blade. Will's face contorted in concentration as he produced a stethoscope out of seemingly nowhere and pressed the cold object to Percy's heart, and then his lungs, prodding all the way.

The son of Poseidon almost sighed in relief when Will finally removed his hand from Percy's stomach and retrieved a vial of clear liquid from a side table. He uncorked it and poured it over Percy's belly. Percy knew it was saltwater from the moment it toughed his skin, sending clear and calming sensations through his body, replacing the hot pain of the injuries on his middle with cool relief.

"It looks like you're gonna be alright," Will said, picking up his clipboard and scribbling some stuff down. "The injuries you sustained are definitely bad but no longer life-threatening. Just take it easy."

"Uhh…okay, that's good." Percy said, sitting up. "Not life-threatening is good"

Will gave him another smile, Percy thought the freckles that splashed against his tanned dark skin made him look increasingly more like Apollo by the second. "That means having visitors is allowed now. And so is food."

Percy realized with a start that he was starving. How did he forget that? Maybe he really was losing it.

"So, yeah, I'll send somebody in with food and stuff in just a little bit." Will packed up his stethoscope, "Yell if you need anything."

"I will." Percy said, pulling his shirt back on gingerly to avoid jostling his middle as much as possible. Percy's 'I will' was probably as credible as Nico's 'I will', meaning he would absolutely definitely not. His stomach was probably going to be sore from all the poking and prodding though. Fantastic.

Will started walking towards the door, "And let me know as soon as possible if you have another attack," He opened the door, "I'll be back tomorrow to check on you again. Seeya, Percy."

"Later, dude."

Percy was secretly relieved when Will disappeared out the door.

0000000000

While he was waiting for his next visitor, (who hopefully was gonna bring food with them), Percy sat next to the window and stared out at the camp grounds.

He was starting to feel restless, especially while watching the camp go through its daily activities. There was nothing he loathed more than feeling like he couldn't do anything - which was exactly what he was feeling like. He was almost jealous of the campers he was watching who were currently getting pelted with berries by angry dryads. Scratch that. At this point he was jealous of almost everything that existed outside of this room.

His thoughts were abruptly cut off when there was a knock on his door, and Percy could have sworn his stomach leapt for joy.

Hazel walked in with a huge smile on her face. The daughter of Pluto was (thankfully) carrying a tray full of food that was already making Percy's mouth water. If Hazel was here that meant Frank was here too, also probably Nico. And if Nico was here that meant there was a possibility that Reyna was here too.

Percy didn't know how much Reyna knew about Tartarus, but she was one of the smartest people he knew. Besides Annabeth of course. The day he met someone smarter than his girlfriend was the day Leo gave up Fonzies.

Speaking of Leo, Percy's eyes widened as the curly haired mechanic appeared in the doorway.

Having the knowledge that Leo was alive wasn't exactly the same experience as seeing him alive in the flesh. Well, seeing him in the flesh while lucid and not bleeding to death.

All at the same time, Percy's memories of his nightmares attacked his consciousness. Standing in the red haze. Leo on the ground. Leo covered in blood. Percy shook his head, trying to clear it. Leo's face was looking increasingly more distorted. Suddenly riptide was through his middle. Percy's breath sped up, his pupils dilating.

"Percy….? Percy!"

Percy felt a hand on his face and he was suddenly back in reality, staring into Hazel's worried golden eyes.

"Oh! Sorry, just spaced out I guess." Percy laughed, rubbing his neck. He internally punched himself. Way to go, Kelp-brain.

"Man, don't do that! You already scared me half to death once." Percy turned his gaze to Leo, who was now walking into the room, his impish grin spread across his face.

Leo made his way over to Percy's medical bed and flopped down next to him. "I'm glad you're not like, in a death coma anymore, cause - oh boy - was that scary. You shoulda seen Annabeth." He whistled, raising his eyebrows. "She's like a bear, all pr-"

Leo stopped abruptly, Percy saw Hazel giving him a "shut up" look out of the corner of his eye, but when he turned his head towards her she only smiled. Percy felt a prickle of annoyance. He didn't need them to censor what was going on - he hated being treated like he was fragile.

"But yeah, we brought you some food. Figured you're probably starving." Hazel chirped, holding the tray out to him.

Percy's annoyance vanished in a flash. Food now, problems later.

He practically wolfed down the meal, which consisted of all kinds of the healthy things he loved like fries and blue coke and two huge cheeseburgers that Percy could swear were singing his name. He briefly remembered when Nico summoned the dead with Happy Meals. He didn't doubt that if he was dead, he could be very easily summoned with a Big Mac.

As he ate, Hazel and Leo fell into conversation with him, telling him about how the camp was going. Telling him about everyone's reactions to Leo and Calypso's sudden appearance and their journey here.

Percy really wanted to ask about Calypso, but it was kind of hard to do that around a mouthful of fries and a Leo who didn't look like he was shutting up anytime soon.

"Oh, man! You should have seen the look on Calypso's face when we took off on Festus. I'm surprised she didn't pee herself." Leo snatched himself a fry from Percy, who sent a good-natured glare at him. "Of course we surprised everyone, especially when you-"

Leo stopped himself again when Hazel sent him another look. Percy's nerves scraped against each other so hard he felt every bit of water in the room tremble.

0000000000

Later, after Percy's belly was full and Leo and Hazel had said goodnight to him, Percy found himself staring out the open window again.

He sighed, looking out to the Poseidon Cabin. Where was his dad right now? What was he thinking about? He wanted to know what he thought about everything, about Percy, about Tartarus, about...All this. He sighed, leaning back. There were times he wished his dad was around. Or even took the time to contact him or something. Like, even a postcard would be fine. Even a 'Hi, son! Looks like you might be dying - this time for real! Cool!' would be better than nothing.

His mind kept traveling back to when Leo had walked into the room earlier. He'd been captured by the memories of that dream…. Percy shook his head, blinking his green eyes. It was just stress, probably. Hopefully. He needed to stop this bad new habit of over-thinking everything.

Moping wasn't his forte - at all. Percy wasn't good at bad thoughts, so the incessant dark feelings felt overwhelming. He felt similar to back on the quest when he was overcome with the fear of drowning. That was scary - not the blood-pumping, adrenaline gushing, fun kind of scary. Being afraid of drowning as a son of Poseidon was something so scary he wasn't exactly sure how to put it into words. Percy didn't like scary things, complicated things, or confusing things. Both that instance and the current one fit all of those categories.

Percy sighed. He missed Annabeth too. Maybe he should just go to bed and brave the nightmares.

Percy saw a flicker out of the corner of his eye. Suddenly his window was full of brown hair and orange t-shirt. He of course, made a very manly squeak and fell backwards off the bed. Laughter sounded from above.

Percy looked up, catching the glint of kaleidoscope eyes and feathers sticking out of unruly brown hair. Only Piper would use the window instead of the door like a normal person.

Percy sat up, running his hand through his dark hair, "Piper, it's like eleven o'clock. I need to get my beauty sleep, remember? Baby's First Blankie is calling me."

Piper sat her ass down on Baby's First Blankie. "Not so fast, Aquaman. I'm here to ensure a nightmare free, once in a lifetime experience, no strings attached, best sleep of your entire life. For a whopping fee of absolutely free."

"…Huh?"

"Percy, I'm trying to say I'm gonna charmspeak you into having no nightmares while you sleep."

"Oh. Neat." Percy said, lifting himself off the floor. "That's actually…really nice of you, Piper. Thanks."

She smiled, patting the pillow, "Don't mention it! Now come here."

Percy climbed over into the bedsheets as Piper hopped off. If Percy wasn't feeling dead tired, this would probably have been mortally embarrassing. Somewhere in the back of his tired mind he knew that.

Piper suddenly looked like she wanted to say something. She nibbled her bottom lip as if she wasn't sure how to say it.

He propped himself up on his elbow, "Uhh…you don't have to if you don't want to. I completely understand. Talking me to sleep like I'm four years old doesn't exactly sound like the most exciting thing in the world to me either." Percy said.

"No, no, it's not that. Percy, just… Leo might act tough about it but really…when he found you he was so scared. We all were…but he….I just want you to know we're all here for you. We'll fix this. Even if it's...not the way you want." Piper said, tucking a piece of hair behind her ear.

"Piper, w-"

"No…don't talk. You need to sleep."

Percy could physically feel the charmspeak melting off her words into his brain. He wanted to tell her that he was sorry for scaring all of them and that he'd be fine and they shouldn't worry themselves over it. He wanted to ask what she meant about 'Even if it's not the way you want'. but Piper's charmspeak felt like warm honey drowning out his words, making his eyes heavy and mouth thick.

He saw Piper say a few more words but he was too tired to comprehend them. His body felt like lead, his eyelids closed shut by themselves. Drowsiness crashed over him like strong waves pulling him out to sea, unable to fight back against the current . Percy felt the warm numbness wash over him, a blanket of honeyed venom, pulling him under.


	3. Everything Sucks A Whole Lot

He was underwater. Voices filtered in and out in waves of sound, muffled by the pressure of the water against his ears. It was peaceful, he let himself drift through the undercurrent, breathing in clear and clean saltwater. His eyes were closed, and he didn't feel any need to open them. Schools of fish brushed past his arms, flying through the ocean like birds drifting on the air. In his mind's eye, he saw them - all different kinds and all different colors.

Percy breathed in deep, the cool sensation of water filling his lungs sending calming vibes through his entire body. Nothing was more peaceful for him. Here, in his father's safe domain, surrounded by schools of spectacularly colored fish who instinctively knew him only as the prince of the ocean.

The scene then started to change. The fish were the first to go. They started to get uglier. Eyes started to bulge, colors started to dull into a musky gray. Way more ugly than Percy was used to seeing, and that was saying something considering he saw Coach Hedge on a weekly basis.

The fish opened their mouths, and Percy watched as they grew razor-sharp, knife-like teeth. The insides of their mouths looked like a dentist's worst nightmare.

Percy knew he was in trouble from the moment his mind's eye saw their bulging white eyes turn towards him. He tried to thrash but his body felt immobilized - Percy's panic was rising quickly. The piranha-wannabes focused in on his left arm, and words began to spill from their mouths. Well, not words, more like just one word over and over. _Perseus, Perseus_ , they rasped. Percy wished his voice was working so he could whisper back, _Fuck off, Fuck off._

They drew closer and closer, brushing against his skin and breathing their chants down his neck. Percy tried to will the water to sweep them away, but even as his gut pulled, the water stayed still. The fish let out raspy laughs, as if to mock him, Your daddy can't save you now, Jackson.

Suddenly everything around him stopped, as if the water turned to ice and froze right down to the depths. The scene started melting away, slowly, like crayons melting in the sun over a blank canvas.

The colors, forms, and shapes all dripped into different ones. Voices drifted in and out like breezes, coming and going. The sudden change lasted for an infinity, the silence stretching on into a vast and open forever.

Percy felt a sharp prick on his arm, and the world exploded.

As it turns out, the piranhas weren't piranhas at all. Percy's eyes wrenched open and he found himself staring into the grotesque eyes of an Arai, it's teeth already embedded deep into his left arm. His rising panic hit it's peak, and he screamed.

The Arai, the monsters in Tartarus that had quite literally made Percy pay for his sins. His mind flashed rapidly with memories of Annabeth being blinded, getting his guts stabbed through, feeling as abandoned and hurt as Calypso had felt when he left her. Countless other memories of curses and torture flooded Percy's vision.

Percy turned with frightened vigor and punched it square between it's eyes, feeling a sharp crack underneath his knuckles. The scene had changed again and he was now in what looked like a pasty yellow med room, but he didn't stop to examine the rest. This was just another one of Tartarus' tricks. He needed to get out, out, out. Out before he had to endure more of the Arai's torture.

"Gah!" The Arai he punched shouted, it's form morphing as it drew back.

Percy didn't waste any time. He scrambled out of the…bed? Why was he on a bed? He didn't have time for explanations. Percy needed to find Annabeth, now. What if some monster had gotten her? What if she was lost in Nyx's house? What if..what if what if what if what if-

"Percy, wait!"

Percy's mind raced on overload as he punched out the window, leaping through it and tumbling outside onto damp grass. Grass. Grass, Tartarus didn't have grass, did it? Was he trapped in an illusion? He needed to find Annabeth. And Bob.

But what if Bob decided that he didn't want to help them again? What if Bob split them up in the first place? No, no, no, Bob wouldn't do that. Bob was on their side. He needed to trust him. And find him. He was their only chance to someday see daylight again. To Percy, being alone all by himself in Tartarus sounded scarier than any monster.

He ran, trying not to trip over himself. Why wasn't his body moving right? Percy stopped running, staring around himself blankly. Cabins. Strawberry fields. Flaming rock wall. He was at the dining pavilion. Camp Half-Blood. This was Camp Half-Blood. No, no, it couldn't be. Unless…unless it was another illusion, or maybe the camp got transferred somehow down to the depths. Percy heard whispers in his ears. He grabbed his head with both hands.

A tap on his shoulder sent his instincts into motion, he spun and hooked the newcomer in his arm and threw them, breathing heavily and quickly. His demigod battle instincts were immediately set into play.

The person hit the floor with a grunt, and Percy eyed him suspiciously. Whoever it was, radiated death. A god, maybe? Some kind of monster, damned to a life in Tartarus? Time seemed to move either very quickly or very slowly. One moment the figure on the ground was very slowly and fluidly shifting, and the next moment he was already sitting up. Percy moved backwards in slow motion, standing so there was a picnic table in-between demigod and monster.

"Perc- Percy, listen to me." The monster said, now standing up very slowly, "You need to take a deep breath and listen to me."

"No, You, you need to tell me where you're keeping Annabeth." Percy demanded. Everything sounded like it was underwater, the world was swaying a little bit. He stumbled due to the vertigo.

"Annabeth is fine, Percy." The being now had his hands raised in front of his body, Percy couldn't make out what his face looked like. "You're in Camp Half-Blood and you're safe."

"No." Percy wasn't even sure what he was saying no to, because the words the monster was speaking were blurring together. Almost like a big blender of words all chopped together.

Another person entered his field of vision, going directly to the death monster. Percy's internal alarms started going off. Two enemies were much worse than one, and he didn't have a weapon to defend himself with. Percy's breath sped up as he lowered into a defensive stance. He couldn't fight both of them, not without Annabeth. Annabeth, Annabeth, _Annabeth_. Without another thought, Percy turned and ran away as fast as he could.

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_(Nico POV)_

Nico's mind blanked as he watched the son of Poseidon high tail his ass away so fast it made his head spin. Or maybe his head was just spinning because said son of Poseidon just ninja threw him onto the pavement. But anyway, this was bad. On the scale of badness, this was like, way bad. Okay, okay, maybe 'way bad' wasn't the most creative metaphor for the badness he was experiencing, but Nico was never one to spend unnecessary time on that kind of creative thinking.

When Nico first heard about the incident on the lake - let's get serious - it wasn't the kind of news that gave you a nice fuzzy feeling inside. He had rushed to the infirmary as fast as his shadow travel could carry him. Of course, Will wouldn't let him into the room no matter how large of a temper tantrum he threw. And really, on the magnitude scale of temper tantrums, he could have rivaled an earthquake.

"Dammit," Jason said beside him, snapping the son of Hades out of his thoughts. The blonde superman was hurriedly dusting off Nico's bomber jacket as he watched Percy's form grow smaller and smaller, "I don't know what happened. First thing he's sleeping like a log and the second we go to give him medicine that might actually help him, he wakes up, freaks out, punches me in the face, and then jumps out the window."

"What?" Nico asked, feeling a flare of annoyance and turning to Jason, "Dude, he's not just 'freaking out', he's hav-"

"Having a flashback due to his irresponsibly untreated PTSD. Yeah, I know." A feminine voice rang, cutting Nico's words right off. Calypso came up beside Jason, staring off towards the woods, where Percy had barreled into and disappeared only minutes before.

"You know, that doesn't mean superman over here does." Nico grumbled, dusting off his pants. He gave Calypso a dirty look. It wasn't as if he hated Leo's girlfriend, he just…didn't like her that much. He felt a strange sense of rivalry with her. Nico would never admit it out loud, but he suspected that Percy was the reason behind that rivalry. Not that he still felt anything for him of course. Old habits just die hard. Speaking of Percy, though, he already felt a pavement-shaped bruise forming on his cheek.

"What does that mean, though?" Jason questioned. Nico almost slammed his face back down into the pavilion pavement. Jason was probably the thickest person he'd ever met. Besides Percy. Okay, maybe Jason's head was just a tad thicker than Percy's.

"It means we need to get to him before it triggers another episode; possibly worse than last time."

Calypso's words rang through Nico's thin body like a bells in a church. If that was true, they needed to do something - fast. If anyone knew anything about what could possibly help Percy, it was probably Calypso. The goddess probably learned about a lot of different things during her long infinity on Ogygia. There was a chance she'd run into something similar to his case before.

Maybe Percy and Nico's relationship had been slightly rocky over the years, especially when Nico had a crush on Percy, but anyway, that didn't matter. The past was the past and that was that. What mattered now was that Percy was in big trouble.

Nico turned to the both of them, curling his hands into fists. "We need to find Annabeth."

0000000000

_(Jason POV)_

The next thing he knew, Jason was running alongside Nico to the Athena Cabin as fast as his legs could carry him.

Calypso had gone the opposite way, stating she was going to find Leo. Hopefully she and Leo could head off Percy before he got lost or hurt in the woods. And possibly pick up other people to help along the way. Hopefully. Who knows how far he'd gotten already.

With that thought, Jason suddenly hooked his arm around Nico's scrawny middle, summoned the winds, and took flight. What was the point of trying to get somewhere fast, and not using the fastest way to get there? Needless to say, just the expression on the son of Hades' face and the squeak he made was worthy of an award itself.

"Jason! What are you-" Nico just about screamed, the next thing he said was lost in the wind as they bulleted towards the large U-shape that made up the cabins. Jason had been getting way better at flying fast over the past month or so, since that was mostly how he traveled between camps. He could usually make it across the United States in just a few days. However, he wasn't very practiced in the art of flying fast while holding screaming flustered death princes who were trying their best to pull his hair out.

His feet brushed the ground as they neared their destination.

"Hold on tight, I dunno how this is gonna-"

Jason hit the ground as his balance faltered, immediately willing the little control he could manage over the wind to flip them so he was underneath Nico, shielding the smaller boy from all kinds of fun rocks and brush burn.

Jason pushed Nico's face into his chest and held onto him for dear life as his control snapped and they tumbled together across the ground, rolling over each other and finally slamming to a stop on something hard - that something hard being none other than the Athena Cabin's front door.

Jason immediately pushed a dazed-and-dirty-looking Nico upright, assessing the damage. Surprisingly to Jason, Nico looked fine if not just dirt-covered and still blinking away the dizziness of the crash landing.

"You okay?" Jason asked tentatively, giving his friend a little smile. Okay, yeah, crash landing like that might have been just a little embarrassing. And by just a little he meant a whole damn lot.

Nico reached his hands up and re-adjusted Jason's glasses. He was wearing his spare pair because Percy managed to break the lenses of his other pair with that punch to the face earlier in the morning. "I'm fine. I'm missing a shoe and I think I've just rolled in more dirt than i ever have in all my eighty plus years of life, but I'm fine."

Jason laughed, ruffling his hand through Nico's dark hair to get some of the dirt and grass out, "Sorry about that. Totally unintentional."

"Careful there, superman, any more head injuries and you're gonna be in the infirmary for life."

Jason smiled, tucking a piece of Nico's hair behind his ear. Nico's expression changed from begrudging humor to something different. The change was slight, almost unnoticeable, but Jason saw, and became increasingly aware of Nico's face. His dark eyes, dark lashes, pale but pink lips.

"Uh, so, yeah." Nico said suddenly, getting up off of the blonde's lap, and just at that moment the door opened.

"You guys…need something?" Annabeth asked from the doorway as Jason scrambled to his feet to stand beside Nico. "You look like you both just got beat up by Laistrygonians."

"You could say that." Nico said, shooting Jason a dark look. Whatever had happened just moments before had very obviously been a fragment of his imagination. Maybe he really did hit his head too hard. Jason rubbed the back of his head; the was no doubt in his mind there was gonna be a bruise there tomorrow.

"I've just been cleaning up this place a little bit. The amount of blueprints in here is unreal. I could probably make a pool out of them and swim in it." Annabeth sighed, brushing her hair over her shoulder, "I was gonna visit Percy in just a little bit though if you guys wanna come with. Also, Nico, you're missing a shoe."

"That's actually… the whole reason we're here." Jason said slowly.

"You're here because Nico's having footwear issues."

"No! No, It's Percy. We're here because Percy."

Annabeth's eyes widened, her tone grew tense. "What happened to Percy?"

The hot summer air around them felt like it grew colder. Maybe it was just Jason's nerves, bringing cool air currents down or something. Or it could be Nico. The both of them had a bad habit of making the air temperature colder in less-than-stellar situations. He shivered.

"He's having another attack." Jason heard himself say.

Annabeth's grey stormy eyes seemed to solidify into stone. "Like… right now?"

"Yeah, and that's why we need to leave. We've wasted too much time already." Nico said reaching out and grabbing Annabeth by the hand and taking the hem of Jason's sleeve in the other.

Annabeth nodded, the panic and haste clear on her face, "Is anyone with him right now?"

"Hopefully Calypso and Leo." Nico said, the shadows already gathering around him, "We're gonna shadow travel there. I don't know exactly where he is but I can guess."

"Alright. Good. Now let's get going."

With that, Jason felt himself get sucked into the shadows, the cold and chill of fear washing over him like a blanket. Jason didn't think he'd ever get used to the feeling of shadow travel. Sure it was a completely thrilling and adrenaline-pumping ride, but it also came with darker feelings that he didn't know how Nico was able to cope with. Feelings like emptiness, fear, anger, and loneliness.

He remembered when he found Percy having a nightmare in Cabin One and couldn't help but imagine that this must be what Percy feels like through all this. Like he was shadow traveling through the unknown, unaware of where he would end up next. Afraid, alone, and in the darkness.

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_(Piper POV)_

Piper sighed deeply as she entered the Big House. She'd just seen Calypso, who stopped to tell her about the situation before running off to find Leo.

Apparently Calypso had come up with some kind of injectable medicine that could possibly help Percy, but when she and Jason went to inject it into a sleeping Percy, he woke up and ran like a bat out of hell - or rather, a demigod out of hell, in this case. The two didn't want to do it while Percy was awake, they were afraid that he'd resist for whatever reason or something.

She pushed open the door to the Infirmary, assessing the damage: a lone syringe scattered across the floor, a pair of broken imperial gold glasses, and a very neglected and sad looking Baby's First Blankie.

Piper felt her heart strings tug. She hated seeing Percy in a condition like this; he tried to hide it but he was so different compared to the strong, funny, and indomitable Percy she knew on the Argo II.

Muffled voices drifted in from the main room of the Big House. Piper picked up the syringe and broken glasses up off the floor, placing them on a nearby table. Gods, she hoped that Calypso and Leo would find Percy soon. Just imagine what Annabeth must be feeling. Piper knew that if it were Jason going through this and was missing, she wouldn't sleep until she found him. She wouldnt be surprised if the son of Poseidon's well-being was constantly on Annabeth's mind.

"…..Yes….I understand…..-n't know how he'll take that…"

The tones of the voices in the other room changed from muffled whispers to intense hushed ones. Piper poked her head out the door, trying to listen in.

"-ercy Jackson…"

The conversation was hard to hear, sounding broken up and impossible to make out. Piper shut the door very quietly behind her, tip toeing down the hallway. As she got closer she realized with a start that it was Dionysus's voice, not Chiron like she'd expected.

Piper rounded a corner, sneaking up slowly on the room where the voices were drifting out from. Sure enough, there was the infamous God of wine. He looked like he was Iris Messaging someone, but from what Piper could see, the conversation wasn't going too well. Dionysus had his face in his hands, looking genuinely distressed. Definitely not something Piper saw every day. She had to rub her eyes and look again just to make sure.

"We've never done anything like this before, are you sure? Because I'm not. Demigods die all the time, it's really not a big deal." Mr. D was saying.

The person Mr. D was talking to laughed, "Oh, I know for sure that's not what you really think, and you know that better than I do."

Mr. D scoffed, waving his hand, "Demigods are disposable - it's one of the facts of life! They're meant to serve us, not us serve them. That'd make every little brat think they could just walk all over us. And if we refused, for all we know they could turn their anger on the boy."

"I think they'd understand."

"How so?"

"Dionysus, he's been to Tartarus and back."

Dionysus was silent for a long moment, taking a swig of his Diet Coke, "But…we don't even know what it is. Even as gods, you said so yourself that don't know if we can help him or not."

"I have my suspicions of what it is, though. Even if I am unable to help him, there is another who can."

Piper almost gasped. What were they talking about? Who was on the other end of the Iris Message? Most likely another god, but it sounded like they were discussing Percy. Not just that, but whoever was on the other end was offering to aid in figuring out how to help him.

Mr. D shifted in his desk again, "I see. As soon as the brat's found I'll talk to him about it."

"Please do. And bro, you know you don't have to pretend not to like him. We all know you have a soft spot for him; if not all of the campers! You don't have to pretend to be cool…You'll never be as cool as me anyway!" Narcissistic laughter followed after that. Piper rolled her eyes. Gods were all so full of themselves.

Piper stepped quietly away from the door before there was a chance of Mr. D noticing she was there. As she padded silently down the halls, Piper felt hope blossoming further inside her. Of course she'd never thought for a second that Percy wouldn't get better - she was even prepared to do things like talk him to sleep like last night - but any news of help (from anyone at this point) was good news.

First thing first, though, she had to. track him down. Calypso said he'd ran into the woods while not in his right of mind, which wasn't a good thing. That could lead to all kinds of trouble Piper didn't even want to consider.

Piper pushed open the Big House screen door and ran down the wooden stairs of the porch into the heat of the summer afternoon.

She found herself praying to the Gods that someone, anyone, would find him. Soon. She didn't want to think about what would happen if they couldn't find him or were too late. Not when hope was just around the corner.

Sure, death was a part of being a demigod. It was one of the facts of their lives. That didn't mean Piper was ready to accept it quite yet.

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_(Hazel POV)_

Surprisingly enough, even while she was at Camp Half-Blood, Hazel still had work to do from New Rome.

It was keeping her busy, to say the least. So here she was, sitting under a tree, filling in reports about her Cohort; things they could improve on, new training methods, and all those other boring Cohort things that Centurions did. It was a new thing Reyna had them trying out.

Hazel looked up and watched from a distance as a mop of dark hair and lightning bolt underwear sped into the woods. She brushed her unruly heap of curls out of her face. What was Percy doing? Running away from the Infirmary? Percy was a pretty adaptable and easygoing guy, so to watch him barrel into the forest (when he was supposed to be bedridden) without any known reason was a little unnerving.

Hazel adjusted her orange Camp t-shirt. What if Percy was in trouble? Guess there was only one way to find out. Hazel tucked her reports into the backpack she'd been carrying and stood up. Reyna's reports would have to wait.

As she started walking at a hastened pace after the son of Poseidon, she wished Frank were here. He was probably at the Mars Cabin - oops, Ares Cabin - hanging out with the campers there. Giving sparring lessons or something.

Hazel took on a brisk walk towards where she saw him enter, a million possibilities rushed through her mind. Hazel would do anything in her power to help Percy if something was wrong. Frank would have been a big help in this situation, maybe he could have turned into a bird and found Percy from above or something. Come to think of it, Frank was useful in almost every situation. But with no time to look for him, it looked like she was going to have to handle this on her own.

She took her first step into the forest at the spot she saw Percy disappear into, the thick undergrowth and trees making it dark even in the midday light. Hazel's golden eyes traveled over the entrance to the dense woods. Her gaze traveled down to the leaf-covered ground, her breath catching fast in her throat. Hazel covered her mouth in horror as she fought back the sudden tears of frustration.

Hazel closed her eyes for a moment before pushing forward through the brush after the prince of the sea, following the path that she knew would lead her to him.

The dark path of thick metallic drops of red, glistening on the leaves like Hazel's own cursed sparkling rubies.


	4. Lost And Found, Kind Of

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter 4! As a side note, be aware that this chapter contains slightly more blood than previous ones! Viewer digression is advised - the necessity for the M rating only gets more obvious from here!

_(Nico POV)_

Nico found himself in the forest, the dark tendrils of shadow travel clearing to reveal a very disgruntled looking Jason and an only slightly less disgruntled looking Annabeth.

They were in a dim part of the woods, surrounded by thick tree trunks and wild prickly undergrowth. Nico could see the slight shimmers of Dryads, hiding from the scare and residue of the shadow travel. He grimaced just a little. Nico was never popular with the nature spirits, they weren't too keen on his natural death-smell.

"He's not here." Annabeth said tensely. Nico glanced up at her, she looked just about as stressed as he'd ever seen her. That was saying something. He'd seen the grey-eyed demigod in some stressful situations.

"We could split up," Nico suggested. Splitting up could either be good or bad in this situation. Percy would probably be found sooner and easier, but on the flipside, only one of them would be there to do anything. That could either cause more problems or be a good thing.

"No way," Jason said immediately. Nico rolled his eyes at him, "If we split up and something happens to any of us, that'll just cause more problems for us to deal with."

Nico sighed, "I get where you're coming from, Jason, I really do. But sticking together is gonna make this take even longer. We've already wasted way too much time."

"Nico's right." Annabeth said, flipping her golden princess curls over to put it into a ponytail, "We're all experienced fighters, and if you get lost just go west - you'll wind up back at camp."

Jason looked like he wanted to argue, but didn't press it, "Okay, but be careful. Both of you. Remember there's a good chance Calypso and Leo are out here searching too. So don't be surprised if you see them." Nico definitely didn't miss the pointed look that Jason gave him when the blonde said 'be careful'.

"You got it." Annabeth said, making a mock salute. "Meet up outside the woods in two hours. If you find Percy bring him with you. Also watch your back - there's not supposed to be monsters in these woods but some of the spirits can get nasty." With that, Annabeth turned and began walking deeper into the forest.

When she was out of sight, hidden by the bushes, Nico decided he should get a move on too. He took off his remaining shoe, along with his socks. The undergrowth might hurt his feet a little bit, but it was worth it to not be off balance if he had to fight. And also it spared him from looking ridiculous.

"Wait," Jason grabbed his hand. Oh no, Nico sensed a mother-bear moment coming on. "If you want me to come with you I can. Like, if Percy mistakes you for an enemy like last time, I can back you up."

Nico just stared at him, "Jason," He said slowly, "I don't know if you've figured this out yet, but I'm extremely capable of handling myself."

"I know, I know, I know," Jason said quickly, putting his hands up, "It's just…"

"Are you scared or something? I know the Camp's woods are big but I'm sure you'll be just f-"

"No, it's not that."

Nico felt a tiny prickle of annoyance that he'd been cut off in the middle of a sentence for the second time in less than two hours.

"It's that I know you've been through Tartarus too. You might pretend you're unaffected by it - just like Percy - but I know that's not the case. Annabeth too. Like, I know I didn't know you before you went through that but still, Nico, what if…" Jason stopped mid-sentence, biting his scarred lip.

"But what?"

"What if it's like, contagious or something? To people who've been in Tartarus."

Nico almost laughed out loud, "Contagious? If it was contagious Annabeth would have caught it already. Trust me."

"What about you though?"

"I'm basically immune to all Underworld stuff. I thought you knew this."

Jason huffed, "Well I was just looking out for you, dude."

Aw, crap. Now he felt bad. Jason wasn't trying to be over-protective, he was only trying to look out for the younger demigod. "It's cool. I appreciate it, really."

Jason looked like he perked up a little at that. "Alright, good. Now we should both split up and start looking. We gotta find my bro Percy." He didn't hesitate before giving Nico a big hug, smothering him in superman love and the fresh smell of high-altitude.

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_(Annabeth POV)_

Regardless of the relatively levelheaded act she put on in front of her friends, Annabeth was anything but calm and collected. Just the fact that Percy was sick was driving her up the wall. Now that he was missing? Annabeth's figurative wall she was being driven up was looking more and more like it was on fire, covered in spikes, and made of spiders.

She tore through the undergrowth, calling his name every once and awhile. Annabeth had already stopped at least two dryads and asked if they'd seen him. Of course, she'd had no luck.

It had already been fifteen minutes since she split from Jason and Nico. Selfishly, she secretly hoped either she or Nico would find him first. Jason had a habit of causing more problems than what it was worth. Of course, Annabeth didn't blame him for it. He was kind of like Percy in that way - just a magnet for trouble.

If she really thought about it though, all demigods were magnets for trouble. It was a hazardous occupation.

She continued her trek onward, still seeing no signs of her boyfriend or even any of her friends. Annabeth wracked her brain as she maneuvered around trees and poisonous plants. If she was Percy right now, where would she go?

Annabeth almost yelled when she went around a tree and crashed right into something. Or someone, in this case.

"Percy?!" She yelped, falling ungracefully on her butt.

"That's who i was hoping you were." A groan sounded from the forest floor.

Annabeth's heart plummeted. Piper got to her feet, brushing leaves off her jeans. Her disappointment must have shown on her face, because Piper's expression softened as she walked over to her.

"I didn't expect to see you out here." Annabeth confessed, taking a leaf out of Piper's hair, "Are you joining the search party too?"

"Yeah…So far I've had no luck though. It's almost like he just up and disappeared."

Annabeth felt a twinge in her belly at the words 'disappeared'. She silently forgave Piper though, everyone's nerves were going wild, Aphrodite's daughter's mind probably wasn't on word choice right now.

"I have news though. You should probably hear it." Piper said, "It's gonna be kind of vague though, because the details are a mystery to me too."

Okay, that caught Annabeth's interest.

"What kind of news?"

"Good news. I hope." Piper shrugged, "But important either way."

Annabeth gave her a 'get on with it' face.

Piper took a deep breath, "I overheard Dionysus talking with some other god. About Percy. It sounded like they were discussing helping out with trying to cure him."

Annabeth covered her mouth with one hand. "Oh my gods," She whispered. If the gods were talking about helping her boyfriend…she didn't have the words to describe how she felt.

Deep down though, she knew that every favor with the gods came with a price. In the span of her short life, she'd had more than a healthy helping of run-ins with godly beings, and she knew from experience that asking them for help usually came with repercussions.

But really though, Annabeth wasn't afraid of any price she had to pay. As long as it would help Percy, she would do anything.

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_(Leo POV)_

Leo Valdez was in a tree. He felt kind of like Tarzan. A better smelling and far more handsome Tarzan, with clothes on, but Tarzan nonetheless.

But anyway, he wasn't just hanging out in trees for fun, he was scoping the area for a certain sea prince. He was having no luck so far, he could only see so deep into the thick treetops.

He heard what happened from his (gorgeous and perfect) girlfriend who had gone back to the Infirmary to help Will get prepared for Percy's return. One problem though, if he couldn't find Percy, there would be no 'Percy's return'. Leo was trying to keep himself relatively calm, the events over the past week or so were really wearing him out. Coming home to a friend dying of Tartarus sickness was a shock, to say the least. Carrying a passed-out demigod a little less than half your size wasn't the easiest task Leo had ever tackled.

Leo sat down on a thick branch high in the air. Calypso told him Annabeth, Nico, and Jason were searching too. That was a relief in itself.

Guilt settled over him as he realized he didn't want to be the one to find Percy. Yes, he wanted Percy safe. Yes, he wanted him to be found. No, he didn't want to have to break horrifying news to his friends again. Worse yet, if the unimaginable had happened to the dark haired son of Poseidon, Leo didn't want to be the one to find him.

Leo put his face into his hands. No matter how he felt about it, the last thing he wanted to have happen was for Percy to die. There might have been a time when he would have rather drowned in his guilt, but he'd changed since the war with Gaea. He wasn't the scared scrawny kid he used to be. Now he was brave. And scrawny.

Leo adjusted his suspender straps. It was time to get moving.

As he slid down the bark of the tree, Leo decided to go with the simplest plan possible. Just go to the center of the woods and start from there. At this point, Percy could be anywhere.

Leo started at a paced run. Maybe he would run into one of his friends and they could search together. That sounded way better than doing this on his own.

"Ouch!" Leo yelped as he felt a sting on the side of his head. He stopped, rubbing the spot. The brown haired demigod bent down and picked up the acorn that had hit him. "What was that for?"

Leo's brown eyes widened as he found the source of the acorn bullet.

"Oh, sorry. Thought you were a monster." Frank smiled, holding up a slingshot.

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Leo and Frank pushed on together through the woods. So far, they'd had no luck. There was no sign of Percy, seemingly anywhere. It was like he disappeared into thin air.

Leo pointed out broken branches, footprints in mud, and other evidence of humanly presence, but was quickly but nicely shut down by Frank. According to the son of Mars, things like that weren't reliable considering there were other people in the woods.

After a half an hour of nothing, the pair was partially convinced that Percy had already been found.

Frank told Leo that he hadn't even been aware of Percy's condition until a few hours ago. However, Frank only arrived in Camp a few hours ago too after hearing from Hazel. So naturally, he had rushed here as fast as he could, only finding out about Percy's MIA status through one of the Ares campers.

"I don't know, maybe he's really been found already." Leo shrugged, flinging a stick he was carrying into the forest. Leo wasn't just feeling hopeless, but also exhausted.

"Gods, I hope so." Frank said softly.

Leo looked up at the taller demigod, "Maybe we should head back. We're useless running around in the woods looking for a guy who's already been found."

"You're probably right."

"I'm usually right."

As the two turned around to head back to where they came from, Leo felt all different kinds of relief.

And that relief came with staggering pounds of guilt, naturally.

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_(Nico POV)_

Okay, now his feet were  _really_  starting to hurt.

Nico was sure he'd acquired at least three splinters by now. He sat himself down on a fallen log, taking his socks out of the lone shoe he was carrying and shoving them on his feet. Stupid Jason. Stupid flying. Nico dropped his shoe on the ground with no intent of picking it up again. It was useless to carry around, and anyway he had other shoes back at his cabin.

Someday, years from now, future demigods and heroes would find a lone black sneaker in the woods. They'd be so fascinated.

You know who would be really helpful right now? Mrs. O'Leary. That dog could hunt down Percy in a heartbeat. Even having  _Grover_  with him would be a better lead on Percy's whereabouts.

Honestly it probably wouldn't hurt to go back to Camp, get Percy's hellhound, and come back. He'd be searching for him all the way back anyway.

Just as Nico got up to start heading back to Camp Half-Blood, he stopped dead in his tracks as he heard a faint rustle in the bushes, the sound of a wet cough. Judging by the sound, about thirty meters away.

Nico's heart leapt to his throat. "Percy?" He called, moving closer to the direction the noise came from. The summer sky was dipping into early evening. If this wasn't Percy…gods help him.

Nico kept slowly moving towards the sound that had since altogether stopped. The silence seemed to last an eternity. Nico's heartbeat, breath, and thoughts were loud in his own ears. He'd gone very deep into the woods. There was very little chance that the person was another one of Nico's friends. It was either an enemy, a forest spirit, or Percy.

Nico found out that even infinite silence doesn't last forever.

"…Uh?"

The voice was quiet, soft but wavering. Not only that, but it definitely belonged to the boy Nico was searching for. There was only one person he knew whose idea of a graceful (or even helpful) sentence was  _'uh'_.

Nico immediately broke out into a sprint. However fast smallish demigods without sneakers could travel; he was exceeding that limit.

The son of Hades tore through the trees. He could feel his forehead beading with sweat. Twenty-five meters…nineteen meters…ten meters…three meters…

Nico practically flew into the small clearing. Sure enough, there he was. Messy hair, wide eyes, unusually pale skin. He was on the ground, leaning against a tree, staring up at Nico with bright dialated eyes, looking like he'd just seen the devil himself.

And no, Nico definitely didn't miss that Percy was covering his mouth with one hand. He didn't miss the bright patch of red on his abdomen, standing out on Percy's white t-shirt like a beacon.

The entire area reeked of blood.

"Oh my gods," Nico breathed, dropping down on his knees to be eye-level with the son of Poseidon.

"Nico…" Percy breathed through the hand covering his mouth, sounding like he couldn't believe what he saw. His eyes were bloodshot, his hair matted with sweat. Nico moved closer to him, immediately beginning to check the demigod's vital signs.

"Dude, I…I just…" Percy said hoarsely, then descending into a coughing fit that looked way more painful than Nico wanted it to be.

"Sshhh, sshhh," Nico hushed him. "Don't say anything. It's gonna be okay."

Well, judging from his vital points, not to mention common sense; Percy was still alive. His pulse was fluctuating wildly, but it wasn't serious. What was serious, however, was that the blood patch on Percy's stomach had more blood coming from it than Nico initially anticipated. The red liquid was seeping down to his baby blue lightning bolt boxers, completely soaking the waistband. Nico cringed - the guy had lost so much blood it was a miracle he was still conscious.

"It hurts so bad." Percy croaked, obviously not heeding the 'don't say anything' part of what Nico had said.

"I know it does, I know it does." Nico said, putting his hand over Percy's forehead. His eyes rapidly scanned the rest of Percy's body, "Gods, how could this happen…" Nico whispered, more to himself than to the boy in front of him.

"I'm sorry. Nico, I'm sorry." Percy gasped, taking his hand away from his face. The inside of his hand was covered in red, as was his mouth. Percy looked restless, biting his lip a little and looking anywhere except Nico's face. He looked… confused. Like he wasn't exactly sure what was going on, was in distress, and wasn't all there. Which Nico wasn't surprised at. Judging by what happened that morning, Nico had half expected Percy to not even recognize him.

"You don't have anything to be sorry for," Nico said. He put his hand on the side of Percy's face, trying to get the sea prince to look at him, "Now, we need to get you back to Camp, okay? Can you stand up?"

"I…I don't know. I think so." Percy said, scrunching his eyebrows together. Nico hoped that Percy wasn't just trying to be a hero. Well, yes; he was a hero, but you get the drift.

Nico backed off as Percy shifted, pushing his feet underneath him. He coughed again, blood spilling out of his mouth, to which Nico had to keep himself from making Percy sit back down. And also keep himself from gagging on the intense smell of blood, but that wasn't that important. As Percy shifted upright he wrapped an arm around the front of his abdomen, gritting his teeth. Nico extended a hand out to him, and Percy took it with a pained and embarrassed small smile.

About a hundred emotions were flashing through Nico right now. Of course, if Percy had been close to death, Nico would have been able to find him right away. But still, the discovery that Percy was still indomitable enough to resist letting Tartarus aftermath stuff stop him was like letting go of a breath he'd been holding for over two hours. Nevertheless, Percy looked absolutely terrible. And needed to get back to the Infirmary. Like, right now. Nico wanted nothing more than to just shadow travel them both back to the Big House, but with Percy in this condition… he wasn't sure if the green-eyed boy would have the mental strength right now to make it out of the shadow realm unscathed. The last thing Nico wanted was for Percy to be any more traumatized.

Percy held on to Nico's hand for balance as he staggered to his feet.

"Okay, good. So far so good." Nico said. He nudged himself closer to the green-eyed boy so he could help support his weight. Nico didn't like physical contact, but he'd live. It was Percy, anyway. The guy had probably saved Nico's ass so many times and he didn't even notice. He could bear a half an hour of saving his life.

"That wasn't so bad." Percy smiled, wiping his mouth on his sleeve. To Nico's relief, the son of Poseidon was looking much less confused and more with the present. However, despite Percy's words, the blood flow down the front of his shirt somehow quickened.

"Yeah. Not so bad," Nico said, beginning to coax Percy forwards. He eyed the guy's abdomen wearily, and had to consciously keep his voice from wavering, "Let's get you home."

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_(Percy POV)_

Percy was exhausted.

To top that off,  _'exhausted'_  was nothing short of the understatement of the century. He felt like his entire body wanted nothing more than to shut down and fall to the ground.

Today had been one of the worst days of his life, and he barely remembered any of it. Percy remembered being hit with a migraine the size of a pickup truck in the woods and everything turning inside out. Before that, zilch. Each step he took was like a knife to the gut. Every time he flinched, Nico would give him an exasperated look like he expected Percy to keel over any second.

Of course he knew Nico wasn't intending to make Percy feel guilty and useless. But yeah, he was making Percy feel guilty and useless.

Nico wasn't really a big guy either, especially for someone who was partially holding up Percy's weight. Like, yeah, he was trying his best to help. Yeah, Percy was grateful beyond words that someone had found him before he something even worse happened. But no, Nico was not the first guy he'd ask to help support his weight. Percy probably weighed at least fifty pounds more than Nico. Maybe even seventy. Or a hundred. How much did Nico weigh, anyway? Like, three chicken nuggets?

Percy's vision was swimming as he took step after step, being guided along by Nico and hoping he wasn't crushing him. He was vaguely aware of Nico jabbering off reassuring and soothing words, but to Percy's ears it just sounded like gibberish. His vision drifted in and out, the only constant out of his set of variables was the incessant burning of the front of his shirt.

"Just ten more minutes. Ten more minutes, Percy. You can do this." Nico encouraged him, squeezing Percy's arm, bringing him to the present world.

The present world was quickly out of reach once again as Percy's head felt like it exploded for the umpteenth time that day.

He suddenly pushed Nico away, falling to the ground with his hands pressed to his skull. Things moved in slow motion again, just like how the blistering pain in his abdomen slowly climbed up his chest.

"Oh gods, oh gods,  _goddamn it_! Fuck!" Nico was yelling in the background, but Percy didn't catch the rest. All he could see was white. White, white, white. Like a snowy tundra stretching out for miles.

Percy's breath stopped as the heat engulfed his chest. His ribs, his lungs, and circling around his heart. Percy tried to hold in his scream for his own sake and for Nico's, but failure was inevitable.

Percy vaguely saw a panicked Nico hovering over him, his mouth moving at rapid speed, but Percy heard nothing. Nico mouthed something that looked like ' _sorry_ ' before Percy's world erupted into darkness.

Darkness, like that wretched hole he couldn't stop falling into.

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Percy's eyes cracked open, his body instinctually wincing against harsh morning sunlight reflecting against yellow walls.

He took a deep breath, the fresh air hitching in his chest ever so slightly. Percy lifted his hands to look at them. Clean, clean and flesh-colored like they'd never met staining blood before. He was in new clothes - a fresh camp t-shirt and simple black shorts. Why, though? Percy felt under his shirt. Yup, bandages in place. But this time, all the way up to his chest. What? Did everything he had just dreamt about really happen?

"So Mr. Jackson is finally awake, I see?" A familiar voice sounded from the side.

Percy turned his vision to across the room. Dionysus sat in a chair, legs crossed, swirling Diet Coke around in a wine glass. Percy blinked. Mr. D was watching it like it was far more interesting than the other person in the room.

The god drained his glass, putting it down on the floor next to himself, taking time to settle back into his chair once again. Dionysus leaned forward, catching and holding Percy's gaze captive with unreadable violet eyes.

"You and I have a lot to talk about."


	5. Dying Gets Confirmed

_(Percy POV)_

"What?!"

"You heard me, kid. Apollo's coming down tomorrow and he's going to put an end to this mess."

Percy was sitting on the edge of his Infirmary bunk on high alert. "Wait, but why does Apollo care if I'm cured or not? Isn't that like… ungodly or something? Unproffessional?"

"Jackson, do you want to be cured or not?" Mr. D said, looking impatient, tapping his fingers against the arm of the chair. Maybe he needed more Coke or something. Percy was surprised he hadn't called him by the wrong name yet.

"Well…yeah, but-"

"No but's, boy!" Mr. D scolded with a wave of his hand, getting up from his seat. "Apollo is coming and whatever consequences come of that; I will do something unheard of and help you manage them."

Percy couldn't help it that his eyebrows flew upwards.

"Oh, put those eyebrows of yours back down. That horrid Athena girl already busted down my door to tell me all about how you weren't in the shape to do any quest favors for Apollo in return for his help." Dionysus casually walked to Percy, stopping right in front of him, his eyes glinting. "But it seems even she is desperate for your useless life. She even offered to do Apollo's quest alone."

"Did Apollo ever actually say he absolutely wanted a quest done for him in return?" Percy asked the god. He made a mental note to tell Annabeth she was absolutely not going alone. This was his mess. He was going to take full responsibility.

Dionysus was silent for a moment, "Yes. He did."

Well, that sucked. But never mind that, Percy finally had a chance to be free of this awful sickness…illness? Thing? Anyways, he was going to take it.

Both Percy and Dionysus were silent. Why was Dionysus helping him? He even offered to help deal with Apollo's consequences. The wine god didn't even like him. Gods didn't help demigods unless they wanted something in return. Or if they were threatened to. And on the chance of gods actually wanting to help demigods, it was either 1) they got something out of it, or 2) they liked you. The more Percy thought about it, the more it confused him.

"Why are you doing this?" Percy asked suddenly, breaking the silence.

"Doing what?"

"Helping me. You don't even like me."

"My, my, Peeta. Always so quick to judge. How your father can stand you is beyond me." Dionysus was silent for a moment before walking across the room to the door. He placed his hand on the doorknob and opened it, "As for your question, let's just say that there are things even I don't understand."

With that, he was gone.

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_(Jason POV)_

Well, schist.

Jason shut the door to the Infirmary behind him. It was dark out, but for some reason he'd assumed Percy would be awake. His assumptions were usurped when he was greeted by a softly snoozing aqua man.

He sat down on the bed adjacent to Percy's, figuring this was kind of like the time he found Percy having a nightmare in Jason's own Cabin One. Strange how history repeats itself. Except it didn't look like Percy was having a nightmare. Thank the gods.

Jason wasn't just here to stare into space though. He wanted to check on his bro, and talk with him a little bit about tomorrow and what would lie ahead. And because he and the others had decided that having someone watch Percy at different intervals would be beneficial for everyone. They wouldn't let Percy know that, of course. He'd definitely throw some kind of sea god fit.

Jason had been searching at the edge of the woods when he saw Nico's enormous burst of shadow travel a little ways off near the Big House. He'd instantly ran to the site, where lo and behold, Nico along with the missing son of the sea were gasping. Gasping for different reasons, too, which Jason found out in a matter of seconds.

Nico was mid-panic attack when Jason reached them, furiously trying to calm a convulsing Percy. Trying to calm someone while being the opposite of calm yourself seemed… counterproductive to Jason. The son of Zeus rushed to pick Percy up, Nico immediately helping him.

They had brought him into the Big House, Nico dashing off to find Will while Jason got Percy to the Infirmary.

When the Apollo campers had arrived, Jason and Nico were shooed out, leaving them to only wonder what would happen.

Annabeth, however, wasn't as lenient about being locked out as the two boys were. She had practically stormed the Big House, pounding on the doors and screaming until they had finally let her in.

Jason was brought back to the present when Percy shifted in his sleep. Jason had seen Percy covered in blood before - but seeing it yesterday was very different than his usual monster-blood attire. He was used to a bloody, grinning and smiling Percy who could make fun of his enemies and defeat them at the same time. Seeing a bloody, possibly dying and screaming Percy? Not really the same experience. Or a good one.

His attention was drawn away from the sleeping form when the door clicked open, the soft dim light from the moon filtering in through the window illuminating the person's face. Imperial gold eyes, light curls cascading over dark honey brown shoulders.

"Oh, sorry, didn't know you were in here." Hazel said quietly but warmly, closing the door behind her.

"Don't worry about it. I'm just…yeah." Jason shrugged, rubbing his neck awkwardly.

"Me too," Hazel smiled, moving over to Percy's bunk. "Everybody's anxious right now. I'm so restless I can't even sleep, but I guess we'll just have to wait and see what happens tomorrow."

Hazel moved a chair quietly to Percy's bedside, sitting down and slowly beginning to subtlety play with his hair.

"Have you talked to Nico?" Jason asked, walking over and sitting on the floor.

"Yeah," Hazel spoke after a moment. "He was freaking out earlier but I think he's alright now that he knows Percy's in good hands with Will."

"Does he still…like him, or whatever?"

"Like who, Percy? No. I don't think so, I think he was telling the truth when he said Percy wasn't his type." Hazel grinned. "He's just known him for so long."

"Oh, that makes sense."

"But really…I think there's a part of him that still really cares about Percy. In my experience, after caring about someone for so long it's nearly impossible to just…stop."

Jason gave a little smile. That reminded him of himself with Reyna, and couldn't agree more. Percy was breathing slowly but evenly, the rhythmic rise and fall of his chest almost calming.

Jason took Hazel's hand and squeezed it, "C'mon, let's let him sleep. He's got a long day ahead of him tomorrow."

"Yeah. You're right."

The two romans quietly exited the room, the door clicking softly behind their backs as they stood in the hallway. Jason was about to say goodnight when he stopped, thinking. What if…hmmm…Huh.

"What's wrong?" Hazel asked, taking notice of Jason's quizzical expression.

"There was a time, awhile ago, when Percy came into my room in the middle of the night and I found him having a nightmare."

"Gods…that's horrible. I hope everything turned out okay."

"Well, that's the thing. It was before we knew Leo was still alive and stuff. Well so, Percy told me that Leo was in his nightmares. A day or two after that; Leo pops up out of nowhere." Jason explained.

"Are you trying to say Percy's illness lets him like, predict the future?"

"No, no!" Jason said, shaking his head. Hazel looked relieved, like the 'thank gods Jason didn't say yes, Hazel, Percy is so sick that he became the new Oracle' kind of relieved. "I'm not sure but I think it means Leo can help somehow. Demigods have ominous dreams, after all. Maybe it was supposed to be a sign and then his Tartarus memories like dream-hacked it. Or something."

"Maybe talk to Leo about it," Hazel shrugged. "Maybe he knows something."

"Yeah. Maybe."

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_(Annabeth POV)_

Weapons? Check.

Ambrosia? Check.

Nectar? Check.

Map? Check.

Extra Drachmas? Check.

Enough Cheetos to last eight missions? Also check.

Planning for Mission: Do Whatever Quest Apollo Wants So Your Boyfriend Doesn't Eat The Dust's necessity list was complete.

Annabeth was determined. Determined to save her boyfriend's life. She figured if she could survive Arachne's lair, she could survive whatever Apollo threw at her. Sure, he had a reputation of killing people who didn't please him, but the daughter of Athena was prepared for the challenge.

What she wasn't prepared for, though, was for a goat to fall through the roof. Which happened to be exactly what happened next.

Annabeth's stormy eyes widened at the sound of wood cracking above her, and they bulged at the sight of furry haunches falling directly over her head.

"Oh my gods." Annabeth said, seconds before being engulfed in fur.

"Annabeth!" A familiar voice bleated as they crashed onto the floor in a heap of ceiling, goat, and demigod.

Annabeth shoved the source of the voice off her, brushing off her shirt before glancing up at the satyr that just fell through her roof.

"Grover?" She asked in disbelief, smiling larger than she had in days, despite being covered in ceiling dust, "Where were you? I haven't seen you in months!"

"Oh, you know. Pan's will stuff. Satyr stuff. Taste testing the enchiladas in local schools." He said, rubbing the back of his neck bashfully before getting to his feet - err…hooves - and extending a hand to Annabeth, "I guess I'm adding ceiling crashing to that list, though."

Annabeth laughed and took his hand, letting him help her get up on her feet, "I'd tell you off about it if I wasn't so curious as to how you even got up there."

"Oh! Uhhh, yeah, let's just say I was riding pegasi-back to Camp and offended one. I was in the middle of my apology when I got dumped."

"That's rough."

"Yeah. Are those cheetos?"

Annabeth sat down at her desk, handing him the bag, "Help yourself."

Grover did help himself, in fact he helped himself to the plastic of the bag while he was at it.

He sat down on one of the camper's bunks, scratching the back of his (now pretty impressive) horns before digging in. Annabeth didn't need the gift of foresight to know whoever owned that bed was going to have cheeto dust in their sheets for months.

What Annabeth was really curious about was what prompted Grover to come to camp anyway? Had something come up? All they needed right now was more problems.

"Grover…what made you decide to take a detour back to Camp anyways?" Annabeth asked, turning to sit backwards on her chair to face him.

Grover looked like he just remembered something really important, "Oh my gods!" He bleated, "Ok, so I was just like doing my thing and all, eating some really good cheese lasagna, when I had a vision."

"Like, a Pan vision, or something?"

"No, no no. Like an empathy link vision."

"Oh my gods." Annabeth breathed, "But didn't the empathy link between you and Percy disappear when Hera dunked him in the Lethe?"

Grover shrugged, shoving more cheetos into his mouth, "I thought that too, but apparently it survived. Somehow. I don't know. Magic is weird."

"What did you see in the vision, then?"

"Well, that's just the thing. I don't know what I saw, but I can guess."

"Uhh… explain."

"It was dark, I guess? And in the woods. He looked like he was…" Grover stopped eating his cheetos, looking down at the floor. "Kind of like he was dying. Blood and stuff."

Annabeth nodded grimly. "That happened recently, he's stable now - just so you know - but yeah. At the time it felt like a wild goose chase."

"But the thing is, he looked like he was doing it to…himself. Dude, I don't know." Grover twirled a piece of his hair with his un-cheeto'd hand.

"That's crazy, though. Percy wouldn't do that."

Grover shrugged, "Just telling you what I saw."

Annabeth didn't know what Grover meant by 'doing it to himself', but she could only pray to the gods that nothing bad was about to happen.

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_(Leo POV)_

Feeling like a failure not even a month after returning to camp felt like a personal record to Leo. Not really a record worth celebrating, but it probably rivaled the time when he felt like a failure just an hour after getting to New Rome. Fantastic.

Leo was camped out in good old Bunker Nine. Being here made him feel comfortable. Well, more comfortable than he would feel around tons of people who would hate him if they knew what he did.

Yeah, yeah, okay. He still felt super bad about basically running away from a chance to help Percy. Maybe others would try to convince him that the crime wasn't worth punishing himself over, but it certainly felt like it was worth punishing himself over.

He patted Festus, who creaked in response. Just another day at his favorite camp hanging out with his favorite giant metal dragon. Ah, life.

Calypso was back at the camp. Probably going over stuff that would concern Apollo's visit later in the day. Leo would have joined her if he wasn't feeling as down as Coach Hedge without anyone to demand push-ups from. He didn't like his friends to see him feeling like this anyway. It'd ruin his bad boy image.

Leo's thoughts were interrupted by a sudden banging on the bunker door. Huh. People didn't usually visit him here, and those who did normally knew not to disturb him when the door was closed. Maybe it was one of his siblings? If those guys set the forge on fire again…

Leo climbed over machinery and maneuvered through the large bunker until he reached the door. He opened it, preparing to receive an inquiry to help put out yet another forge fire.

Instead, Leo found himself face-to-face with Piper.

"Leo!" Piper smiled. "Sorry to bother you, but Apollo's here. He wants everyone who was involved in the quest to be at the Big House."

"Oh…do we like, have to?" Leo asked casually, leaning against the doorway. "It's a pretty long walk after all. We might not get there in time. Or get lost. Or eaten by wolves."

Piper raised an eyebrow, "Uhh…are you okay?"

"Yeah. yeah. Fine. I'm fine." Leo shrugged, plastering a grin to his face. "Never been better."

Piper gave him a knowing look. Gods, that girl could see through anybody. She was getting increasingly good at reading him like a book.

"Alright. Okay. You got me," Leo confessed, stepping out of the bunker and shutting the door behind him. "I'm just… I don't know! I feel bad because I persuaded Frank that we should stop looking for Percy cause I was afraid to be the one to find him. If he wound up being dead or something."

"Leo, everybody knows you're the one who saved Percy on the lake in the first place. I'm sure it's fine."

This was… exactly what he expected to happen. Great.

"But I feel like it's not fine."

"Well, it is." Piper said decidedly. "I'm sure Percy doesn't care anyway."

Leo felt himself surrendering to her probably charmspoken reasoning. He knew Piper didn't usually use charmspeak on her friends. For good reason, too. She could be downright manipulative.

The two began their trek towards the Big House in silence.

Who knows, maybe Percy really didn't care about any of that.

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_(Percy POV)_

Percy sneezed.

He shivered, rubbing his nose. What was that about? What was that thing that people say…. Oh, yeah. You sneeze when people are talking about you. Or something.

Anyway, Percy was feeling kind of nervous. He sat on the side of his infirmary bed, making sure Baby's First Blankie was thoroughly underneath his butt. It wasn't as if Percy hadn't met gods before… in fact, he'd probably met too many. This was a new situation, though. What if Apollo blamed him for the sickness? Or decided it was unfixable? Gods were unpredictable, and on top of that, Apollo was one of the most unpredictable out of all of them. Percy would rather know he was going to die than just up and dying without warning. Even if it made stuff a lot more stressful. He felt really similarly to the time when he received a prophecy stating that he was going to drown to death.

Apollo was late. Which wasn't surprising. Most gods liked to be late to stuff on purpose. They were weird like that.

Suddenly the door opened, revealing an extremely anxious and jittery looking Will Solace.

"Percy." He said, gripping the doorknob. "Apollo's here."

Right as Will finished his sentence, a smiling god pushed past him into the room.

How did Percy know said god was Apollo? First of all, the dude's medium-dark skin had a perfect tan unattainable by any mortal, his purposefully messy dusty blonde hair didn't have a strand out of place, and his teeth were so white they could have blinded a lesser man. Percy, being that lesser man, had to shield his eyes from the gleam.

"Oh, haha, sorry. Forgot to turn off the Sunshine Smile." Apollo laughed, turning his smile into a teethless one.

"Uh,"

In the background, Will gave Percy an apologetic and slightly embarrassed smile as Apollo sauntered over to where Percy was seated on the bed.

The sun god gave another unnerving smile, turning to face where Will was at the door.

"Thank you, Will. That'll be all."

Will looked restless and uncomfortable, twisting the door knob a little bit. Percy didn't miss the glance he flashed at him before shutting the door. Okay, Percy understood being nervous when your godly parent was in the room, but Will's expression was one of warning. An expression that read 'Dude, Apollo is terrifying please don't get yourself killed.' Percy shivered.

Meanwhile, Apollo turned his attention back to the son of Poseidon.

"So, Dionysus tells me you've been having a hard time, huh?"

"You could say that. I guess."

"Lay down for me." Apollo pushed down on Percy's shoulders, forcing him backwards and down on his back.

Apollo immediately got to work, startling Percy once again by pushing the sea prince's shirt up to look at his abdomen. Percy hoped this forward approach wasn't how he handled all of his patients.

Percy flinched as Apollo pressed his fingers down onto his abdomen, "Take a deep breath," He said slowly.

Percy did as he was told, watching as Apollo flattened his hand on his belly, his expression becoming very concentrated.

"Good…Alright, Dionysus told me a little bit about your symptoms, but I'd like to hear it from you." He said, pressing in different areas on Percy's black and blue middle.

Talking while this was happening was going to be a challenge.

"Uhhhh…well um, I get like, dizzy sometimes?"

Apollo made a humming sound, and Percy continued.

"And it hurts on its own randomly. Every once in awhile," Percy's throat was getting dryer and dryer by the second. "It makes me cough, too. But like, the bad kind of coughing. With blood and stuff."

"Mmmmhhmm…" Apollo said thoughtfully, pushing his hand further up Percy's body to stop on top of his heart. "Dionysus led me to believe you were also experiencing flashbacks?"

"Well, yeah." Percy shifted uncomfortably.

"And you have episodes where the illness deteriorates your organs."

"How did… how did Dionysus know that?" Percy felt extremely uncomfortable. Not just because Apollo was still prodding his vital points.

Apollo smiled, but didn't answer Percy's question. "The last time you had an attack, where was the pain most concentrated in?"

"My chest. Like, my heart. I guess."

Apollo drew his hands back from Percy's skin so fast it reminded him of satyrs finding out burritos had meat in them.

"Dammit…" He whispered, turning away from Percy, putting his hands on his hips.

Percy sat up and wiggled his shirt back down. Ok… this was weird. He wished people would just tell him straight up what was going on. Everyone seemed to be bent on trying to hide him from every truth. It pissed him off.

"What?" Percy demanded.

"If it's already gotten to your heart…" Apollo slowly turned back to the son of Poseidon,

"I'm afraid it's too late."


	6. Prescription: Field Trip

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wonder what kind of Field Trip? What do you guys call it again? A Feels Trip?

_(Piper POV)_

Piper and Leo trudged through the forest in comfortable silence. Piper twirled a piece of her hair with her finger, thinking. Leo had looked really shaken up when she arrived at the bunker about ten minutes ago. She didn't exactly know the details but… his stressed and manic expression was enough for her to slip some charmspeak into her words to him.

She stepped over a twig and looked up as the end of the woods opened up into the fields of Camp Half Blood.

"I hope he's okay." Leo mused as they began their trek across the fields towards the Big House.

"Apollo is literally the god of medicine. So like, not just a really good doctor, he's like the lord of all those good doctors and more. If he can't help Percy, who can?"

"True."

They neared the porch and Piper was surprised to see a satyr sitting at the railing. More accurately, gnawing on the railing. Sitting just sounds like a better image than gnawing.

The magical creature looked up from the now thoroughly chewed section of wood, "Are you two here to see Percy?"

"Yeah." Piper said, climbing up the steps, "Are we allowed in?"

"Sure, if you want. But it might not be worth it." The goat boy bleated before clutching his head. " _Uuggghhh_ …Peeerrrrccyyyyy."

"Dude. What." Leo ran a hand through his curly brown hair. "What's wrong with Percy?"

"And who are you?"

The satyr slumped his face against the railing bars, "I'm Grover. Percy's best friend."

Piper and Leo glanced at each other. Leo mouthed a very large  _'What.'_

"Percy and I have an empathy link. That means whenever he experiences magnified emotions, so do I." Grover pushed away from the railing and looked at the demigods with a grimace, "Like right now, for instance."

"Oh my gods." Everything started clicking in Piper's mind. If this satyr had an empathy link with Percy and Percy was experiencing intense negative emotions, that meant…

"Leo, come on." Piper demanded, taking Leo by the hand and practically dragged him into the Big House.

"Piper, do you think-"

"Yeah. I do." Piper said tightly, making her way towards the Infirmary with Leo's hand secure in her grasp.

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_(Annabeth POV)_

Annabeth felt like her world was crashing around her while she desperately tried to superglue the pieces of the universe back together.

Dionysus sat in front of her at his desk, rubbing both eyes with one hand. She was mad at him. Someone had to be blamed for this. She needed to be mad at  _someone_ , and as of right now he was the best candidate.

After Grover had smashed through her roof, the two had decided to come to the Big House to see how Percy was doing with Apollo. Will Solace met her at the door and told her. She didn't even get to go in and see Percy.

She hadn't expected this.

In retrospect, she should have known something like this would happen. How blind was she? To think that this whole deal would happen without a hitch. That Percy would actually make it out of this alive.

"How could you let this happen." She growled at the god of wine through gritted teeth. "You  _knew_  Apollo wouldn't be able to save him. You knew it all along."

"For Olympus's sake, girl." Dionysus hissed back, standing up, "Just because I'm a god doesn't mean I know everything. You think I want Poseidon's only demigod son to die on my watch? If I had a death wish, maybe."

"So it's all about you then. You don't care that Percy's dying." Annabeth knew she was losing it. Hysteria rose up in her chest as she realized the very gravity of the situation as she said it out loud. " _He's dying!_  My boyfriend is dying and the gods don't even care! He saved all of you more times than I can count! Doesn't that mean anything to you? Doesn't being family mean anything to you? And don't give me that 'demigods die all the time' bullshit."

Dionysus sighed, closing his eyes, "Annabeth." That immediately caught Annabeth's attention. Mr. D never used her actual name. "Nobody wants Jackson to die. The kid is the best demigod we've had in two thousand years. You think the gods want to give up that kind of prize? No. Absolutely not. That's not how they work."

"So you only care about him cause he's a 'prize' and y-"

"Listen to what I'm saying, girl. I'm telling you the cold hard truth and even if it's not ideal, it's going to save his goddamn life."

Annabeth glared, but was slightly dumbfounded by the aggressive determination in Mr. D's voice. She'd only heard him use that tone when he really meant something.

"…Okay. Go on."

"What I mean is… the gods of Olympus think Percy is too valuable to let go. This works to our advantage. Even if Apollo can't heal him, that's not the last straw."

"So… who else can help if Apollo can't?"

"That's the thing. The god who can help Percy isn't on Olympus. On top of that, he's not that fond of Jackson. We have no idea if he'll help or not."

"Not on Olympus… wait… do you mean-"

"You know very well who I mean, Athena girl."

Annabeth felt like her frantically beating heart halted to a complete stop, "Hades."

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_(Percy POV)_

As Apollo paced the room muttering to himself, Percy sat quietly on the edge of the flimsy Infirmary bed.

He…didn't know how he felt. Kind of numb? Maybe a little hungry? He kind of needed to use the bathroom? He was getting used to feeling like this. Percy wasn't sure if that was a good thing or not.

Apollo stopped at the center of the floor, "Hades is the only one who will know anything about this kind of illness, being an Underworld kind of guy and all. Your best bet at this point is to go to him. If you can. But even if you can't, you should, cause like. You'll die if you don't."

As much as Percy appreciated Apollo not sugar-coating the truth, he couldn't help but wonder if the sun god knew the meaning of tact.

"So… the mission is off?" Percy asked.

"Yeah. Well, yes and no. I have a new quest for you, Perseus. Your new task is to go to the Underworld and demand that Hades heals you. No matter what." Apollo said, looking out the window, "I better be off now. I have an appointment in Syria."

Percy watched as Apollo crossed the room to the door, probably going to say goodbye to Dionysus before he left.

"It's a wonder why you didn't take our offer to become a god, you know." Apollo mused, sounding like he was thinking out loud, "You would have made your father so proud."

"My dad…does… Poseidon know about…all this? Like, he has to, right?"

Apollo opened the door and slipped out, without answering and without looking back.

Wow. Rude, much?

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It was ten minutes later when the door opened again, this time revealing a storm of blonde wild hair and hurricane grey eyes. Annabeth looked like she could be a daughter of Zeus sometimes… but if he ever told her that he might get in more trouble than it was worth.

"Percy!" She exclaimed exasperatedly. Percy smiled and pushed himself off the bunk to greet her, "Oh no, you don't." She said, taking him by the shoulders and pushing him back down.

"I'm fine. It's cool." Percy smiled, running his hand through her hair.

They just stared into each other's eyes in silence before Annabeth suddenly bit her lip and her brows creased as she wrapped her arms around him, pushing her face into the nape of his neck, "Gods, Percy, I…"

"I know. It's okay." Percy said softly, rubbing circles into her back, "Apollo said Hades can help, and we can like, go down there. And stuff. It's worth a shot. And on the bright side, Apollo says he doesn't want a quest anymore."

He felt Annabeth nod, and take a deep breath. Percy could tell she was trying to hold it together - something she was normally pretty good at - and not just for Percy's sake. For her own too. Annabeth was smart. She knew even more than Percy that giving in and crying now wouldn't do any good for the situation.

He knew Annabeth would endure this with him. Which was kind of amazing - like, seriously. If you compared them both by looks Annabeth was an angel and Percy was a dead fish. How he ended up with such an amazing person was the thing he was most grateful for. They were more than just lovers. They were best friends. Teammates. They'd go to the ends of the earth for each other.

Gods, he loved this girl so much.

"You'll be okay, right?" He asked, placing a small kiss on her head. She pulled back out of the hug with tears in her eyes and a smile on her face,

"Who cares about me, seaweed brain! I'm okay as long as you're okay. And I promise, I'm gonna make sure you're okay."

Percy felt his heart flutter and he leaned forward into a kiss.

The day he stopped loving Annabeth Chase was the day McDonald's discontinued Big Macs.

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_(Jason POV)_

Jason, Hazel, Frank, Piper, Leo, and Nico were in the main room of the Big House.

Well, more like sleeping in the main room of the Big House.

Apollo's doctor visit to Percy had taken up a good deal of time, and on top of that, Will told them all that Percy needed space. They weren't allowed to see him. Except Annabeth, of course. She's smart and stubborn enough to get past any stupid rule like that. Anyway, nobody knew if it was Percy's request to be alone or Will's  _'Doctor Senses'_ , but it left the six of them making the main room couches their new homes.

It was pitch black outside, but Jason couldn't sleep. Every time he closed his eyes, boom, another thought about what Apollo told them as he was leaving.

Apparently the last known way to help Percy would be to take him to Hades. Easy, Jason had thought, With Nico's help, this would be a synch.

But he kept thinking about the look on Nico's face when Apollo said that. Like, yeah, Nico's resting face was always a little pissed off. But it was different, kind of like the look Will made when Apollo told him he should be taking better care of the Infirmary rooms. A kind of horrified Oh-No-Why-This kind of face.

Jason glanced at the sleeping son of Hades, who was slumped against Hazel. Together they looked like a pair of little dolls. Well, Hazel always looked like a doll come to life, but you get the picture.

"Can't sleep either?"

Jason was so startled he ejected two feet into the air.

"Woah. It's just me, dude."

Jason looked down to see Leo crawling out from underneath the couch.

"You were sleeping under the couch." Jason said flatly.

"Well, yeah. Ever since Frank got his 'manly-man transformation' he's been snoring like a bear. Like, new Frank is good and all but I miss old Frank. Man, I don't even miss old Frank, I just miss being not two whole people shorter than him."

"He's been 'New Frank' for like eight months."

"Still new." Leo whispered back, sitting down beside Jason on the couch.

"So, why can't you sleep?" Jason asked, leaning back against the cushions.

"I don't know…I'm worried, I guess. Sorta." Leo shrugged, averting his eyes from Jason.

"…Me too." Jason whispered, glancing at Piper sleeping on the floor.

"I hope this doesn't turn into a bigger mess than it already is." Leo sighed, picking at the edge of the couch.

"Same."

The two sat in a loaded silence for several minutes. Jason could hear Leo's level breathing, synchronized with his own.

"You know…I never thought I'd see you again." Jason confessed, playing absentmindedly with the edge of his night shirt, "I thought we lost you."

"Aw, man! Don't get all sentimental on me now!" Leo grinned, "I was always planning on coming back. No matter what. Mechanics are always improvising, right?"

"Yeah. I just want you to know that it wasn't any small deal that you were gone. Even though we should have realized that it was you we were talking about. We should have known you'd figured something out."

Leo gave Jason the most genuinely sincere smile he'd seen on his face in a long time, "That… means a lot to me. Thanks, man."

"Don't mention it."

"I think I'm gonna try to get some sleep," Leo yawned, laying down. "G'night, dude."

Jason watched as Leo descended into obvious fake snoring.

So the son of Hephaestus just wanted the couch. Despite being deprived of his sleeping area, Jason smiled softly. Typical Leo. The war with Gaea took a lot of things from them, but at least spared the little things that made them who they were. Like strategically stealing a couch, for instance.

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_(Hazel POV)_

Hazel yawned as she slowly woke. Daylight drifted through the windows of the main room, illuminating the sleeping figures all around the room.

Frank was on the floor, curled up in a big ball on his side with a pillow under his head and a baby blue blanket wrapped around him. She took a moment to appreciate how cute her boyfriend was.

So cute.

On the less cute side of the room, Leo was drooling puddles into the couch Hazel could have sworn Jason had claimed before they went to sleep. Instead, she saw him snoozing softly curved around a sleeping Piper Mclean. Okay, that was cute too.

She glanced down to the figure whose head had made quite a home on her shoulder. Nico always looked really good when he slept. The bags under his eyes were way less noticeable, and his expression was that of peace rather than stress. She wished he could look like that all the time.

Hazel looked up as Annabeth emerged from the hallway, looking like she hadn't slept a wink.

"Annabeth?" Hazel whispered.

"Oh, hi Hazel. I didn't see you were awake," Annabeth said quietly back, scanning the room full of snoozing demigods. "Is anyone else up yet?"

"Nope," Hazel said back. "Judging by how you look, you shouldn't be up yet either."

Annabeth shrugged, "Couldn't sleep."

Hazel decided within less than a minute that Annabeth was lying and there was more to that statement, but didn't press it. She looked like she didn't want to talk about it anyway.

"Percy's still sleeping, but I think we should get down to the Underworld as fast as possible." Annabeth pushed on, reaching down and shaking Piper a little bit, "Help me wake all these guys up."

As the whole crew was roused into the world of the conscious, Hazel began to feel a little nervous and excited at the same time. Like, yeah, they were only going to the Underworld to help Percy, but seeing Hades was going to be interesting. She'd met Pluto before, but never his greek counterpart. She wondered how he'd react to her. And how she'd react to him.

"Hey, Nico. Wake up, sleepyhead." Hazel said softly, nudging her half brother.

" _Nnnnnnooo,_ " He groaned, clearly still half asleep and not looking like he was planning on waking up anytime soon.

Hazel got up. Nico, who had been leaning on her, fell flat on his face on the couch.

"Ughhfhhpph."

"Oh, come on."

Hazel's attention was drawn away from her scrawny pale brother when Frank appeared next to her.

"G'morning." He yawned, rubbing one of his eyes.

Yeah. Her boyfriend was definitely the cutest.

"Good morning." Hazel smiled, giving him a hug, "Help me wake Nico up, would you?"

Frank laughed sleepily, "No way. I don't want this morning to end with turning up in the fields of punishment."

"Good choice." Nico said drowsily, pushing himself off his face and into a sitting position.

"Alright, now that everyone's awake, I've got some news for all of you."

All six heads turned towards Annabeth as she stood in the center of the room.

"Someone's going to be joining us shortly and will help us get to the safest entrance of the Underworld unharmed. I know what you're thinking - we don't need help cause we can protect ourselves. That's true. Except this is a special situation. Dionysus and I both agree that extra help would be beneficial to help keep Percy safe."

"Can't we just shadow travel there?" Jason asked, looking incredibly confused. If Hazel thought about it, Jason usually looked incredibly confused.

"Bad idea." Nico said from the couch, running a hand through his pitch black hair. "Remember when I was forced to shadow travel me and Percy out of the woods about a week ago? He almost couldn't handle it, and I don't wanna risk it again."

Jason made an 'O' with his mouth, realization dawning on his face, "Oh. Yeah that makes sense."

"Uh huh," Annabeth began again, "So you'll be pleased to hear our escorts will be none other than the Hunters of Artemis themselves. And please, keep this to yourselves until they arrive. Percy might be mad about it."

Naturally, reactions were mixed all across the room.

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_(Percy POV)_

Damn, his stomach hurt. Probably from all of Apollo's prodding. Probably. He was voting on 'probably' because he didn't want to think of other reasons but didn't want to rule them out either.

Percy pushed himself gingerly off the Infirmary bed. Annabeth was nowhere to be seen, meaning she probably went to wake the others.

He was a little worried about her. Last night was rough, he could admit that. Whatever Apollo had pushed on in his belly didn't like that at all, and had him throwing up blood every three hours.

Definitely not the kind of thing he wanted Annabeth to see, cause even though she'd acted brave, he knew she was internally screaming about it. That might be why she was muttering so much.

But anyway, he was pretty sure he looked like death. Cause he felt like death, so the looks probably reflected what was inside. If he kept this up he'd give Nico a run for his money. That guy always looked like he lived under a tombstone.

He grabbed the fresh Camp tee and shorts off the side of the bed and began to get changed.

Percy hated almost being used to this. He felt like if he let himself forget what it was like to be healthy and strong, it would never come back to him.

A pretty scary thought.

But hey! He was going to good ole Hades' house, adventure awaits!

Once he was dressed, he padded to the door, opening it and stepping into the sunlight-flooded hallway. He could hear voices coming from the main room.

Stepping down the hall, he felt vague dizziness in the back of his skull. He stopped and put a hand on the wall, shutting his eyes tight as the wave of dizziness washed over him, riding out the internal storm. These had been happening more often now. He curled his hands into fists, sure that his knuckles turned white.

"Percy?"

Percy's eyes flew open and he immediately took his hand off the wall, straightening himself.

"Hey." Percy rasped back to Jason as he approached.

"Dude, you sound awful." Jason said concern dripping into his voice as he scanned the son of Poseidon's face.

Percy waved away the Roman's concern, "I'm fine, man. It's all good."

Jason nodded, getting the message to stop pestering him, "We're getting ready to leave, the others will be waiting out front."

"Cool." Percy said, "Go on without me, I'll catch up."

Jason gave him a knowing look. Percy raised his eyebrows. Jason took a step towards him. Percy raised his eyebrows even further.

"Dude. Percy."

"Bro."

Jason took another step, "Don't be a dumbass."

"I'm not."

"Bro."

"Dude."

"I'll help you walk."

"I don't need help."

"Yes you do."

"No I don't"

"You do."

"Do not."

"Dude."

"Bro, I don't need your h-" Percy's dizziness got the better of him as his legs gave out. Jason rushed forwards, grabbing him under his arms to stop the fall.

"Still don't need my help?" Jason grinned.

Percy sighed, failing to stop himself from giving Jason a little smile, "Fine, Superman. Have it your way."

"That's what I thought." Jason said, hoisting Percy up and putting his arm around him to help support his weight.

0000000000

Percy wasn't expecting to see what he saw when he stepped out the door. Or rather, when Jason stepped out the door practically carrying Percy with him.

The others - even Grover, to Percy's surprise - were out on the porch steps, filling backpacks with water bottles, ambrosia, and nectar. The camp in front of them was slowly waking up.

But that wasn't what he was most surprised at.

Next to Annabeth on the steps was Thalia Grace.

What was Thalia doing here? Why were the Hunters here? Did something happen?

"Jason…what's going on? Why's your sister here?" Percy said in a low voice, looking around at the Hunters of Artemis sitting on the grass stringing their bows.

"Well…uh… Annabeth talked to Dionysus and he said they should go with us. Just to help out, that's all." Jason said, shifting. He looked uncomfortable.

Percy wriggled out of Jason's grasp, sudden strength fueled by agitation and determination allowing him to walk stably on his own. He walked down the stairs and stood in front of Annabeth.

"Percy! How are y-"

"Why are the Hunters here?" Percy looked back and forth between Annabeth and Thalia. Something was going on here, and judging by the fact that he didn't know about it, it was probably bad.

"Hi, Percy." Thalia said with a smile. He didn't smile back.

"The Hunters are here to protect us from any monsters or other things that might attack us, Percy. That's all."

Percy felt himself sway a little bit, "What are the 'other things'? And why didn't anyone tell me about this?"

"We didn't wanna stress you out… Why are you so angry all of a sudden? Did something happen?" Annabeth asked, obviously seeing him sway and standing, gently putting a hand on his arm, "Be careful, if you're feeling dizzy you should sit down."

"Annabeth, what 'other things?"

Thalia looked away from the two of them. Well, she obviously didn't want to be in this conversation. Percy felt his irritation spike to the next level.

"Don't worry about it right now. It'll be okay, I promise."

She was keeping things from him. Of all the people here who were keeping things from him he never expected her to as well. He trusted her. Why was she lying to him? His head hurt. It didn't make sense. Nothing made sense.

Suddenly, it hit him.

"Is it…me…?" He said, quiet at first and then louder, "The Hunters are here to protect you from  _me_ , aren't they?"

Annabeth smacked her hand to her face, "Percy. No."

"No, no, no. I'm right. You think I'm gonna attack you guys."

"That's not it at all- Percy, you need to calm down."

Percy knew he needed to calm down but couldn't find the will to do so. He glared at Annabeth. He thought he could trust her.

"Stop lying." He took a shaky step backwards.

"Percy, I would never lie to you, you know that. Please try to calm down." Annabeth said slowly, raising her hands in front of her. "You're losing it a little bit. I need you to calm down. You're not acting like yourself."

"You're lying." Percy spat before taking off up the stairs and practically hurdled through the front door.

He flew down the halls, skidding around corners and almost tripping over rugs until he found what he was looking for.

"Mr. D!" Percy exclaimed, throwing open the door into the wine god's office.

"For the love of Olympus." Dionysus muttered under his breath from his desk as Percy spoke onward.

"You think I'm going to attack them! That's why you asked the Hunters to come!"

"Perseus, you're really starting to grate on my nerves. Sit down." Dionysus flicked his finger and a chair of vines grew right out of the ground, pulling the son of Poseidon into it. "Much better."

"Tell me the truth. Why are the Hunters here." Percy grit his teeth. The world was swimming. He needed to calm down. But how?

"They're here to protect you and the others in case your disgusting disease attracts monsters right out of Tartarus, you imbecile."

"But the Doors of Death are closed!"

"You think you know the limits of the world we live in, Jackson? You haven't found them yet. Who  _knows_  what kind of evil you'll attract with that smell. Monsters from all over will smell you eons away."

Realization hit Percy like a train. Annabeth was telling the truth. Abd he'd just snapped at her and accused her of lying. Now he felt like an asshole. A really big asshole.

"Percy!"

Percy's head whirled towards the door as Annabeth stepped through, concern all over her face.

"Annabeth! I-gods, I'm sorry, I don't know what happened I just saw the Hunters and I saw you and I was just like- Woah! And I was dizzy and stuff and then-"

"Hey, hey, it's alright. I know that most people haven't been straight with you recently and it's completely natural for you to assume I was lying. Don't worry." Annabeth said, "But still, I appreciate the apology."

"Well, this is all very endearing." Mr. D was boredly swirling diet coke in a wine glass, "But don't you two really need to get moving?"

"Oh. Yeah. Come on, Percy." Annabeth said, taking Percy by the hand and leading him out the door, "Thanks Mr. D!"

When they were in the hallway, Percy almost tripped over his own feet when Annabeth turned towards the Infirmary wing suddenly.

"What are we doing?" Percy quizzed as she pulled them both into the all-too familiar room. The Apollo poster on the wall beamed down at them. Just like an old friend.

"Here." Annabeth took her boyfriend's hand and dunked it in a tray of salt water. Percy's eyes widened.

"Any better?" She asked.

"Yeah, actually. A lot better." Percy breathed. He felt like a haze was lifted from over his brain. The dizziness subsided, leaving him feeling instantly relieved. "Wow. I really needed that."

Annabeth nodded, "That's why I'm gonna make everyone carry saltwater canteens with us. Will told me that it would do more good than none so, yeah."

"Good idea." Percy nodded. "So if I start feeling hazy or agitated you guys can just splash me in the face or whatever."

"That's the plan."

"I love your plans."

"I know you do." Annabeth gave him a kiss on the cheek, before whispering, "Don't worry about earlier, okay? I know it's hard for you right now and you feel like everything's going on behind your back. So it's okay."

"How'd you know that?"

Annabeth smiled and rolled her eyes, "I've known you for how many years now, Seaweed Brain? I think I know when my boyfriend's out of sorts."

Percy grinned, "I love you."

"I love you too." Annabeth grinned before pressing their lips together.


	7. The Big Three Sleepover Spectacular

_(Leo POV)_

Walking. Was. So. Boring.

They'd been at it for three days.

So far, they hadn't seen any monsters. Which was a little fishy.

Calypso hadn't been talking to him too much, which was just a smidge disheartening. Right now she was walking in the front of the group next to Jason's hot sister Thalia - (was he allowed to call her hot now that he had a girlfriend?). The two looked like they were in deep conversation. He guessed he could see that this was all new to Calypso - like, people and all. It was probably a little overwhelming. He'd absolutely let her have her space if she needed it.

Leo glanced up at Percy. The sea prince was snoozing atop Festus, who was creaking along on his metallic beautiful legs. Leo put a hand on his dragon and smiled fondly. As much as he missed the Argo II, he liked Festus this way. He liked dragons. Especially metal ones. Which meant he double liked Festus.

He saw Jason walking next to Nico, who was talking animatedly. Using his hands and all. Goddamn Italians.

Piper and Annabeth were walking together, so were Hazel and Frank. Percy's goat friend…what was his name? Grover? Yeah. Grover was talking with a few Hunters.

The caravan was shaped like an oval, hunters surrounding most of the outside. Like they thought nobody else could do anything except them. Which was wrong. Seriously, he and his friends saved the world! Leo died and came back to life! They could have handled this on their own.

Leo sighed. He just wanted to fight…or something. His hand found its way to his pocket to tinker with some spare tiny parts he carried with him. If ADHD could kill a man, Leo would be dead already.

Or dead a second time.

Whatever way you wanna see it.

He glanced over at where Calypso and Thalia were walking along. They looked…really close. Which was nice, for her, cause she needed friends and all…wait a second…was his girlfriend…blushing? Leo smiled to himself. Thalia was probably telling her about something cool that Leo did.

Leo's smile faltered as he saw Calypso lean in and say something and Thalia giggle with bright eyes.

Oh.

_Oh._

Leo looked back at Festus.

Looks like he was going to have to try harder if he didn't want his girlfriend stolen from him by a certain blue eyed daughter of Zeus.

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_(Nico POV)_

The evening was setting in with a brisk chill in the summer air. Not that Nico minded, of course, cool temperatures didn't really phase him.

The crew of the late Argo II was setting in for the night. The Hunters provided these awesome silver tents that could inflate in seconds, though. So setting up didn't take long at all.

He wasn't that fond of the idea of talking with the Hunters, but he'd thank them for helping with the quest anyway. Whenever he saw the silver shimmer of one of their bows he couldn't help but think of Bianca.

He wasn't bitter about her death or the Hunters anymore, or anything. He'd gotten over that ages ago. Old habits just die hard. And he still missed her. He would probably always miss his big sister.

Anyways, he needed to find a tent-mate for tonight. Even though he wasn't planning on sleeping. The lack of monster attacks throughout their journey was unnerving.

He spotted Hazel and trotted to her side,

"Hey! Do you wanna like, share a tent or something."

"Oh, Nico! Aw, I'm sorry! I already promised Frank I'd room with him." Hazel said, a blush creeping up her soft cheeks.

"Oh, that's fine." Nico said, smiling a little bit and he nudged her with his elbow, "I'm sure he's thrilled."

"Nico!" Hazel shrieked, her hand fanning her face at at least 500 MPH.

Nico gave her a little grin and scampered away before Hazel's fanning speed reached record levels. It was ok with him that she was rooming with Frank. He liked how happy she was with him.

And anyway, who cares if he didn't have a tent? He wasn't gonna sleep in the first place.

Like, sure, he'd probably enjoy sleeping.

But he was so worried and anxious it was going to prove sleeping impossible.

"Nico!"

The familiar voice called Nico out of his thoughts.

"Hey, Piper."

"Jason's looking for you." Piper said, the setting sun reflected off her eyes, turning them every color of the sky at once. But they looked… cold? Nico blinked. He never got to know Piper really that well, but he'd always admired her. And all her weird-but-cool Aphrodite powers and stuff.

"Okay. Thanks." He said, nodding to her as she continued on.

What could Jason want? If he was going to grill him about feelings again Nico swore he was gonna…

He walked into the cluster of tents, looking halfheartedly for the one and only blonde superman.

His mind drifted to thinking about their destination. Home sweet Underworld. He hadn't seen his dad since…well, before he fell into Tartarus. Nico's heart sank. Hades hadn't even tried to get him out. He almost died down there. Being kidnapped like eight times in the deepest layer of hell really took it out of you.

So, yeah, facing his dad was gonna suck a little bit, but it would be worth it in the end. Percy not dying mattered more than the chance to avoid an awkward family reunion.

"Nico, there you are!"

Oh, there he was.

"Piper said you were looking for me?" Nico asked as Jason approached. The guy was wearing a SPQR T-shirt and bermuda shorts. Jason's sandy blonde hair was pushed up in the front, like the wind itself styled it upwards. He looked really good….Wait, what?

"Yeah, man! I was gonna ask if you wanted to sleep in Percy's tent with me. Annabeth was gonna stay with him but she wants to arrange a conference with the Hunters since we're gonna get to the entrance to the Underworld in a day or two."

Nico shrugged, "Sure, sounds good to me."

He might doubt his ability to sleep tonight, but this was better than nothing.

0000000000

_(Jason POV)_

The dark rolled in quickly, which seemed to make Nico happy at least.

They were setting up inside their tent. Nico was sitting on a sleeping bag looking bored. Or worried. Or slightly amused? Even as the son of Hades' best friend, sometimes it was hard for Jason to get a good read on him.

Percy was on a sleeping bag too, laying on his back. He looked like he was hiding a sense of frustration. Percy was so much easier to read than Nico - he wore his heart on his sleeve almost all the time whether he wanted to or not.

Jason flopped down on his belly.

"Don't you think it's weird that…there's been no monster attacks?" Percy said suddenly, like an ocean wave breaking through the silence.

"Yeah-"

"I wouldn't worry about it." Nico cut Jason off before he could even realize what was happening. Jason raised an eyebrow at him. "They're probably still recovering from the war. It'll be awhile 'till they're ready to attack again."

Percy frowned, "I dunno, man. I'm getting weird vibes about all of this."

"Trust me, dude. We'll be fine. It's smooth sailing, and once we reach the Underworld it'll be even easier. Since I'm here and stuff."

"Yeah…I guess. But…" Percy mused.

Anybody with ears could tell this conversation was going nowhere.

"Soooo…. How about we all get some sleep?" Jason said, forcing a smile.

"I'm not tired." Percy said, pushing himself up into a sitting position. "Can't we like, go for a walk or something?"

"Why do you want a walk?" Jason sighed, "We've been walking all day."

"I haven't! They make me ride on Festus all day." He pouted, "Do you know how sore my ass is? And I think I have sattle burn. I'm going stir-crazy."

"I think a walk sounds like a good idea." Nico chimed in. Jason glared at him.

Nico shrugged.

Jason groaned.

Next thing he knew, they were out on a walk.

He decided he'd keep a close eye on Percy. Sure, he was looking surprisingly lively and like he could stand up on his own without dizzy spells, but it was better to be safe than sorry.

Nico and Percy walked ahead of him, probably about to have another bottomless argument. Jason rubbed an eye. It was so late. He was so tired. Why did he willingly pair himself with these two night owls? Jason took to stepping on twigs in his path out of boredom.

Jason stepped on a twig that let loose a bigger sound than he'd ever heard any normal twig make. Kind of like a booming sound. But boom-ier. Sorta. He stopped and stepped on it again. Another boom. Huh. That was weird.

"Jason?" Jason heard Nico call out from twelve paces in front of him.

Jason was about to step on the tiny branch again when the boom sounded without his foot even touching the ground.

He looked up to see Nico and Percy racing back towards him, followed by what Jason discovered to be the actual source of the booms.

A giant lion.

And he didn't look happy.

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_(Percy POV)_

The good thing was that they wouldn't have to wonder if they were going to be attacked by monsters anytime soon.

The bad thing was that he was about to become cat food.

Percy swerved to the side as he and Nico backtracked towards Jason. He reached into his pocket, feeling for riptide.

"Percy, get out of here!" Nico shrieked at him, eyes wild as his dark sword materialized into his hands like veins out of the darkness.

"No!" Percy shouted as he dodged a paw going over his head.

The Nemean Lion. One of the monsters Hercules originally conquered. And then became the constellation Leo. His hide was impenetrable. Percy wondered if his middle name was Leo. Nemean Leo Lion. No, that was stupid.

Percy was a leo. Leo was Leo. Lion means Leo.

The lion roared. Percy's brain was getting off track again.

The son of Poseidon shook his head to clear it. He needed to stay on task or else who knows what would happen.

"Percy. I swear to the gods." Jason's voice knocked him out of his thoughts - oh, and also literally knocked him. Onto the side of the path on a bush.

Percy tried to protest again but his voice caught as the atmosphere filled with ozone and Jason jabbed with his spear.

Naturally, the Nemean Lion dodged. Jason pursued it, the two morphing into a kind of dance-fight, Jason slowly yet surely leading the fight away from Percy.

Dude. Way to make a guy feel useless. Percy pushed a hand underneath himself and tried to get upright.

"Woah, man. Sit this one out, will you?" Nico seemed to appear out of the darkness, pushing Percy back down.

"Nico. Let me up."

"No! Do you know what's going on? That's the Nemean Lion! You can't stab it with Riptide and there's no

water around for you to manipulate! You're basically useless in this fight anyway!"

"Well - so are you!"

"I know! Why do you think I'm letting Jason handle it?!"

Percy was about to retort again when the lion roared, sending a blast of invisible force at them. Percy watched as Jason skidded backwards and Nico was pushed violently forward, falling flat on his face next to Percy with a yelp.

If that wasn't the perfect opportunity, Percy didn't know what was.

He lept up off the bush, rushing across the path to where Jason was still at it with the lion.

"Dude, what are you doing?!" Jason hissed, stabbing the lion over and over with his lightning-charged spear.

"You'll thank me later." Percy said, raising Riptide.

"His pelt can't be penetrated. Riptide is useless." Jason growled through gritted teeth, letting out a small grunt when one of the lion's claws found its mark on his arm.

Percy dropped Riptide and raised his arms. The Nemean Lion turned its glinting black eyes on him.

" _Percy!_  What the hell are you doing?!"

Percy closed his eyes and extended his energy into the earth, searching. He flinched as the lion swung his paw a hair away from his face.

Even with his eyes closed, he could tell Jason was trying to get the lion's attention back onto himself.

"Are you  _nuts?!_ " Jason screeched, "There's no water, man!"

Percy felt a subtle click in his mind. Found it.

Percy raised his hands forcefully and his gut pulled with needle-like pain.

But sure enough, there it was.

Percy glanced at Jason and saw his expression turn from frustration to realization. If a lightbulb could go off over his head, it would have.

A geyser of strong underground water ejected out of the earth, right underneath the lion.

"Quick, Jason!" Percy commanded.

Out of the corner of his eye he saw Jason nod, already in motion of the plan, and thrust his spear into the gushing tower of water.

Electric coursed through the geyser, illuminating the area and sparkling with charge. The lion caught in the center let out a monstrous roar.

The water slowly subsided, and as the last of it disappeared into the ground, Percy and Jason watched, panting, as the Nemean Lion dissolved into dust with one last angry roar.

"Well. That could have gone a little better." Jason remarked, still trying to catch his breath. Even through the dark Percy could tell he was hurt. Four giant claw marks were slashed across his right arm, the sleeve of his purple legion tee in tatters. Jason's hair was also blown backwards with blood and sweat to the brink of no return. It looked gross. Percy knew he probably wasn't much better. He could feel a nick on his cheek throbbing.

"Percy!" Percy turned to see Nico scrabbling to his feet, scampering to his side. "Oh my gods. You idiot."

"Sorry." Percy grinned, his hand subconsciously reaching up to rub the back of his neck bashfully.

"Are you dizzy? Do you need to sit down?" Jason asked brushing his hand lightly against Percy's arm.

Percy felt a prickle of annoyance. He was so tired of being treated like glass.

"Dude. No. Do I look like I need to sit down?" Percy threw his hands into the air. "No! No, I don't. If I needed to I'd already be doing it!"

"Woah, there. Just looking out for you, man." Jason held his hands up in defense, his bright blue eyes still scanning Percy for injuries.

"Whatever. If he says hes fine, he's fine. We need to get back to the others before those scratches get infected." Nico said. Percy could tell from his tone that his patience was being tested. Good. Percy's patience was so tested from the past few weeks he was about to explode.

"Okay, okay." Jason adjusted his glasses. "Let's go."

0000000000

_(Nico POV)_

Nico was sure the bags under his eyes had reached world record levels.

Between the lack of sleep, Percy's muttering, and Jason's grumpiness, he was more tired than he had been in ages.

He was carefully wrapping Jason's arm in medical gauze inside their tent. Percy was pacing restlessly, his hair everywhere and eyes as wild as the sea.

Nico handed Jason a half a square of ambrosia. He grumbled a half-assed 'thanks' before slowly eating it. He knew Jason was just pissed off at Percy for acting like an idiot, and though Nico shared the feeling, he couldn't help but worry.

Nico glanced at Percy, who was still pacing the tent. This wasn't like him. The Percy he knew wouldn't get so worked up over this…or maybe he would. Of course Percy would feel like this over being constantly kept in the dark about everything. Anybody would.

"I'm gonna find Annabeth." Percy said suddenly, making a move towards the tent entrance.

"She's probably in a meeting, Perce'," Nico said.

"Who cares." Percy growled before disappearing out the door.

Nico and Jason watched him leave in silence.

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"Nico?"

"Yeah?"

They were softly tucked into silver sleeping bags that smelled like cool wind over the water. The silky material felt like he was laying on a star. Jason sat up, looking down at Nico.

"Do you still like Percy?"

The question caught him off guard, and his face must have showed it because Jason suddenly looked very excited.

"Jason that's…well, first of all, who I like is none of your business." Nico scoffed, rolling his eyes.

"Of course it's my business!" Jason scoffed, throwing his arms in the air, "Dude, we are like, best friends. Best friends forever. BFF's tell each other these things."

"Then - you tell me what's been going on with you and Piper!"

"I asked you first!"

"I asked you second."

"First."

"Second."

"Fine."

"That's better."

"Piper and I haven't been talking." Jason said, running a hand through his dusty blonde hair.

"No way. I just saw her a few hours ago. She told me you were looking for me."

"Yes way. She said she needed some space. Even though I'm in New Rome half the time anyways so I don't know how much more space I can give her besides leaving her alone all the time. And yeah, she's mad because I asked where you were. I thought I was being nice by giving her the space she wanted and not asking her to room with me but whatever."

"What the hell? Did something happen?"

"I don't - I don't know."

Nico frowned. He didn't like seeing Jason so down in the dumps. It wasn't fitting for him.

"That's dumb."

Jason shrugged, "Yeah."

Zeus' son suddenly turned his attention back on Nico and went in for the kill, "So, do you like Percy?"

Nico groaned, "Jason, I don't wanna talk about it."

"Are you confused? Is he leading you on? Were you never over him?"

Nico's eye twitched. Jason and his mother bear syndrome.

"No. I don't know. It doesn't really matter."

"So you do like him."

"No!" Nico felt his anger spike, "Please, just - ugh! I'm just worried, that's all!"

"Okay, okay. I get it." Jason held his hands in front of himself, "Okay, you don't like him."

Nico nodded exhaustedly, "I just… I've known the guy for a long time, you know?"

Jason nodded, the light in his eyes giving Nico the impression he'd heard this before, "Hazel told me."

"Ah."

"But yeah. I get you, man. I feel like that about Reyna a lot of the time."

"You do?"

"All the time."

"She's kind of like a sister to me now… She's a great person. Even if she's also an incredible beacon for trouble."

Jason laughed, "You can say that again. Good thing she knows how to handle it."

Nico smiled softly, glad that the conversation wasn't about himself anymore.

Questioning himself on how he felt about Percy would get him nowhere. He wished Jason could see that.

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_(Frank POV)_

The sun rose over the trees as Frank stepped out of the tent he was camping out with Hazel in. Another day of walking. Well, flying. Frank had been using this opportunity to practice his shape-shifting abilities into different kinds of birds. And Hazel seemed to enjoy watching him flit around, so it was alright.

He could see others slowly awakening and venturing out of their silver tents too. The caravan would be on the move in no time.

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Frank peered down from his place in the sky, watching his fellow demigods along with the Hunters trudging on.

They'd packed up in five minutes flat. Kind of impressive, really, those Hunters. Though he hadn't seen anything that could compare to stuff he'd seen Hazel do.

Speaking of Hazel, she was deep in conversation with Percy atop of Festus, who was creaking along happily. They looked like they were having a good time. Maybe he'd join in.

Suddenly Frank's eagle-eye vision picked up a sharp movement. He zeroed in on Nico, who stopped walking for only a split second.

Nico started at a jog and Frank watched as he ran up to where Thalia was walking beside Annabeth and Calypso. He pointed ahead and said something to her before her eyes widened and she nodded.

"Everyone!" Thalia called from the ground below where Frank was soaring in the sky, "We're approaching the entrance to the Underworld! Prepare yourselves!"


	8. The Domino Effect

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Welcome to the Underworld. :)

_(Hazel POV)_

The entrance to the Underworld was nothing like Hazel expected.

The group was paused in front of a run-down but in generally alright condition old small house deep in the forest. The wood was grey with age, but Hazel could detect none of the tell-tale signs of small animals making the house their home. That wasn't surprising. Animals didn't like Underworld stuff - including Hazel herself and her brother. The only animal that didn't really show any fear towards her was Arion. She missed him.

It was nothing like she expected because she'd expected something…more grand. The Romans were more spectacular with this kind of thing than the Greeks were though, and this was a Greek entrance.

Annabeth and Grover were helping Percy down from Festus' back while Leo was petting the giant metal dragon's nose; probably saying goodbye to him. There was no way anything that huge was going to fit into that little tiny house.

Hazel looked over at Percy. He looked a little pale. Huh. He seemed to be doing okay the whole journey here. Hazel hoped his condition wasn't going to suddenly plummet. After all, Apollo only told them they needed to get to the Underworld quickly, he didn't actually tell them what specifically was wrong with Percy.

Hazel saw Piper approaching and smiled,

"Are you ready?" She asked Piper.

"I guess. I mean, we've done harder stuff than this before. How scary could it be?" Piper shrugged, playing absentmindedly with her braid.

"Everyone!"

Hazel turned to face Thalia, who waited for everyone's attention at the entrance to the house. Hazel admired her authoritative air. It kind of reminded her of Jason.

"This is where the Hunters take our leave." Thalia clapped Annabeth on the shoulder as the blonde demigod approached her with Percy. "Good luck. It was good to see you guys again."

"Same to you. Thanks for coming with us." Annabeth grinned in good-nature.

"Tell Artemis we said hi." Percy smiled.

Thalia nodded and gave Annabeth a hug and Percy a hair ruffle before walking to Jason and embracing him. Hazel watched with interest as she saw Thalia's lips move, very subtly whispering something to him. Hazel suddenly felt like she was infringing on a private moment, blushing and looking away. Thalia and Jason were siblings after all.

Hazel spotted Calypso with Leo, looking like she was saying goodbye too. Leo's face was twisted though, like he was hurt.

Grover was saying goodbye to Annabeth and Percy, looking like he was on the verge of tears. Aw, poor guy. Percy and Annabeth were his best friends, right?

As the Hunters, Grover and Calypso said their goodbyes and moved out, Hazel could feel the atmosphere dropping in temperature.

This entrance to the Underworld was somewhere near Central Park, that much she knew. Nico had told her once that there are multiple entrances to the Underworld, the safest one being in LA. Hazel figured this entrance would have to do, seeing as how a life was on the line.

Hazel sent a wary glance towards Percy once again. The paleness that was on his face earlier was gone. Either he was really good at pretending, or his condition was actually getting better.

"Okay," Annabeth said, her hand visibly tightening around Percy's, watching Calypso, Grover and the Hunters disappear into the depths of the woods, "It's time to move out."

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_(Piper POV)_

As she stepped through the broken door to the shabby-looking entrance to the Underworld, Piper felt the cold fingers of death playing a tune down her spine. It was unnerving, very similar to the sensation she felt when Gaea erupted from the ground during the war.

Piper shook her head to clear it. She didn't need the Leo-Dying-And-Vanishing flashbacks. That was long over. Leo was alive and well.

Piper pushed onward into the tiny home, that suddenly seemed way bigger than before; the hallway stretched on and on and on. She felt her comrades behind her and kept careful watch of Hades' son in front of her.

It was a unanimous decision to let Nico lead them inside. Who else was better for the job? Definitely not Piper.

"Hold it!" Nico shouted suddenly, stopping in his tracks and throwing his hands out against the walls.

Piper paused immediately.

Unfortunately, not everyone got the memo.

Let's just say the domino effect is… pretty effective in these kinds of situations.

Frank, who was in the back, must have tripped and pushed Leo, who fell forward on Jason, whose shoelace got caught underneath of the scuttle, and barreled into Hazel, who screeched and face-planted into Annabeth's back. Annabeth was holding Percy's hand, and lurched forwards and fell on Piper. And finally, Piper was knocked forward onto Nico, who couldn't possibly have the strength to hold seven demigods.

Piper found out why Nico had called for them to stop when she found herself and the others falling down into silent and heart-stopping cold darkness.

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_(Annabeth POV)_

The darkness hit her before her mind could register as she and seven other demigods tumbled head over heels into open air.

Panic, however, hit her like a freight train.

She screamed, which later looking back on it, was probably alright and excusable especially considering everyone else was screaming too.

The darkness, the cold, suffocating darkness that curled around her waist and imbedded itself in her fingers. It infiltrated her pores and flashed as storms raged in her grey eyes.

Tartarus. Tartarus. That's where they were going. How could they have been wrong? This was supposed to be an Underworld entrance! How could this happen!  _Everyone was going to die!_

Annabeth's breathing sped up, her heart racing out of her chest as she flailed, looking for something, anything to grab onto.

Suddenly, she felt herself get struck across the face. She didn't know who did it or what she was hit with, but it was just what she needed.

Annabeth was taken back to reality.

Now, with her screams subsided and her head cleared with that whack to the face, she could see clearly.

In fact, they weren't falling through pitch darkness after all. Upon her slightly-less-than-calm inspection, Annabeth found she could see buildings in the distance.

Yes, they were falling. Yes, there was no way to know if they were going to hit the ground with a splat or not. But no, they were not in Tartarus. This was undoubtedly the Underworld.

Still, that information did little to calm her racing heart.

She suddenly remembered Percy and the fact that she didn't have his hand in her grasp anymore when she hit something soft.

Well, kinda soft. Softer than hitting solid ground.

She rolled, falling again and yelling as she fell down a…slide?

 _Ouch_. She was gonna have brush-burn.

Annabeth was suddenly and promptly spit out onto the ground. She groaned, turning over and laying on her back. Jeez. Everything hurt.

Annabeth heard more crashes and realized her friends were also emerging from the slides and crashing onto the dirt.

She looked up.

The entrance they used to get into the Underworld was exactly what it sounded like.

Way far up, a tiny hole in the sky was barely visible. Annabeth deducted that thats where they fell from. They'd then fell all the way down onto some old ratty mattresses, positioned on an angle to dump whoever fell onto them into several giant tube slides. Like the ones you see at water parks. Except without water. Yeah. Brush-burns for everybody.

Annabeth turned her attention back to her friends who were slowly getting to their feet. Not everyone was there yet.

Including Percy.

Shit.

Dammit.

Annabeth wildly flew to her feet.

He'd fly out of one of those tubes any minute. She needed to catch him before he hit the ground.

"Percy!" She screamed.

Suddenly a new bundle of Camp T-Shirt and jeans shot out of one of the slides.

Annabeth had never moved faster in her entire life. She was there within seconds, using herself to brace his fall, catching him clumsily but effectively and skidding backwards against his momentum. He grunted and gasped. Annabeth felt the familiar warm stickiness of blood.

He immediately tried to wriggle out of her grasp and stand up, and Annabeth held him back down, sinking to her knees and bringing him with her. He was hyperventilating.

Oh no.

"Percy, Percy, you're safe now. It's okay."

She automatically knew by his expression that her words were lost on him.

"No!" Percy screeched, clawing at his own hair, eyes wild and he tried to struggle away from Annabeth, "We're in Tartarus.  _We're in Tartarus!_  Annabeth, you have to run!  _Please!_ "

"We're in the Underworld, Percy. You're safe. I've got you." Annabeth said, her voice straining.

He had tiny cuts on his face and blood spilled in little streams from his mouth. His hair was sticking up with sweat. Annabeth's heart lurched. His lungs wouldn't be able to keep up if he kept breathing like that. Dammit.

"Oh gods. _Oh gods._  You need to get out of here! Annabeth,  _they'll kill us!_ " Percy stopped struggling against her, suddenly wrapping his arms around his middle and coughing up thick blood around his words.

Annabeth's panic sensors went off blindingly at the sight of the front of his shirt dampening with thick dark blood.

She needed to get him to calm down. At this rate, not only would his lungs collapse but he would also pass out from hyperventilation and blood loss. Nevermind what would happen to the rest of his organs.

"Shhhh, Percy. It's okay. It's okay. You're safe. We're not in Tartarus. It'll be okay."

Annabeth had to force herself not to gag on the thick scent of blood.

She could feel the worried and stunned eyes of their friends on her back.

She could tell it was sinking in finally to most of them.

As Percy buried his face into her shoulder and let out a cry of fear and pain she could feel the other demigods' emotions burning holes in the atmosphere.

She knew they finally realized that none of this is a game. This place - Hades' realm - was the last opportunity to save his life. Percy wasn't going to be able to bounce back from this by himself like all those other times.

Annabeth soothingly petted Percy's hair as he slowly quieted and his violent shaking turned to shivers. She held him close as she willed herself with everything she had to keep it together.

She couldn't cry. Not in front of Percy. And not in front of the others.

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_(Nico POV)_

As he led the ex-crew of the Argo II towards his father's palace, Nico felt sick to his stomach.

His mind flashed to when he had found Percy in the woods, smelling and looking like death itself.

This time was different. This time he was… hysterical. Not hysterical in the funny way, though. Hysterical in the scary way. In the way that put everything out clearly for Nico to see.

His feet felt like they were walking on their own and he was just along for the ride.

He knew Percy was dying. So why did it feel different now? Why did it feel…  _real._

Nico bit the inside of his lip. Of everyone here, he should be the one who understood death-situations most. Well, besides Hazel. Nico gave her a glance. Black eyes met golden ones, and unspoken communication passed between them. She was just as shaken as he was, if not more. Hazel had never actually seen one of Percy's episodes like Nico had. Before now anyways.

Nico turned his obsidian gaze back to the path in front of him. He could see his father's palace in the very near distance.

The entrance they used must not have been utilized in a long time, judging by the state it was in. They were lucky nobody broke an arm or a leg in that kind of fall.

Even as he tried to tear his mind away from Percy by thinking of other pressing matters, he couldn't stop going back to those thoughts. Percy was in terrible condition. He had passed out after his episode and was now being carried in Frank's enormous arms. The front of Frank's shirt was covered in Percy's blood.

Good gods, this was both uncharacteristic and extremely unsettling. He knew if Percy were conscious right now he'd insist for them to let him walk on his own. He was stubborn, and his pride was already wearing thin.

What's worse is that Nico couldn't even tell if Percy was near death or not right now. The whole area radiated and reeked of death and devastation. He couldn't sense singular life energies. Or lack thereof, in this case.

He was shaken from his deep thoughts when he realized he was standing in front of a huge black gate. The kind of black that looks devoid of any light, and the kind of gate with skeleton images all over it like it was designed by an architect who really hated his job.

"This is it, I guess." Nico said to the crew behind him, "This gate should lead to Persephone's back garden. Hades won't like us using this way very much, but it's the least dangerous."

He felt Jason approach beside him.

"Not dangerous is good."

"Well, it's not _not_  dangerous. Just the  _least_  dangerous." Nico's voice must have accidentally wavered, because Jason's hand brushed against his own in response.

He felt his pulse flutter.

"Alright everybody, let's do this." Leo said, cracking his knuckles. Before Nico could stop him, the son of Hephaestus put his hands on the lock and they erupted into flames.

"Wait!" Nico squeaked as the heat pierced through the dark and damp Underworld air onto his skin. He jumped back, thankfully unscathed.

Leo didn't wait, however. Nico was about to repeat his command when the gate pushed open. What was remaining of the lock was dripping white hot onto the ground, next to smiling Leo giving everyone a flaming thumbs up.

"Woah," Jason said. "Leo, dude, that was awesome."

"I know, right?" Leo boasted, looking confident yet his eyes betraying him; with one glance Nico could tell he was doing everything he could to keep from panicking. "What are we waiting for? Let's go!"

As the crew entered into Persephone's garden, Nico was given a cold reminder of why this way was only  _less_  dangerous when a giant vine picked Hazel right off the ground.

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_(Frank POV)_

Immediately, the crew sprang into action.

Frank held Percy tighter to his chest. Percy was a kind of slender guy, but nobody could deny that he had strength and a good amount of muscle. Because of that good amount of muscle, Percy wasn't exactly the lightest thing in the world to carry. Good thing Frank was Frank, and carrying the son of Poseidon wasn't proving to be a problem. Though if Percy knew he was being carried princess-style by the huge son of Mars, Frank didn't doubt the sea prince would become harder to hang onto than a fish.

Annabeth was barking orders, and Frank was lucky enough to catch the part that applied to him.

"Frank - get to Hades' palace! Don't let anything touch Percy! Go! Go! Go!"

Persephone's entire garden was moving like one giant monster that wanted to eat them all for lunch.

Frank didn't need Annabeth to tell him twice.

He pushed hard down onto the ground with his feet and broke into a sprint, His arms covering and holding Percy close like his life depended on it. Which… probably wasn't too far from the truth. If he didn't run as fast as he was right now; Frank would probably be dead meat.

He glanced behind him, catching a second of the battle, but that was all he needed to know what was happening. His girlfriend was still being thrown around by the vines, Nico doing everything in his power to get her back. Which, of course, meant multitudes of skeletal warriors bursting from the ground.

Frank almost felt bad about not staying back to help Hazel, but he knew she was strong. Hazel could handle it. And if she couldn't, the rest of the crew would. And also his first priority right now was to get Percy to safety.

Frank sidestepped a patch of flowers that were trying to bite his ankles, a dangerous looking substance dripping from their teeth. Ew. Flowers with teeth. That definitely wasn't natural.

His blood pounded in his ears as he rounded a corner into a small covered courtyard leading to a door.

The bloody and injured demigod in his arms suddenly went tense. Frank skidded to a stop.

Percy coughed wetly. Frank grimaced. He hoped Hades had extra clothes somewhere. He could tell Percy was slowly coming to, which was bad. There was a good chance he would panic again.

Frank observed the tiny courtyard. It didn't look like there were any dangerous carnivorous plants this close to the palace. He saw what he was looking for. A door, just barely visible and covered with hundreds of tiny vines and flowers.

Frank could smash through the door. He had no doubt about that, but the problem was Percy. He was afraid to put him down on one of the nearby courtyard benches.

Percy's panic attack after the slides was terrifying. Frank never wanted that to happen again.

Looks like he was going to have to get through without using his fists.

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_(Percy POV)_

The world was spinning when Percy opened his eyes.

Everything was moving in slow motion.

He was pressed against something warm but sturdy, and he found out in the next few minutes of groggy and dizzy consciousness that he couldn't move even if he wanted to.

He saw…blotches of green. And heard the faint sounds of explosions and yelling. Was he in a war zone? How? The last thing that happened was… actually, he didn't know. Percy blinked and it felt like it took two years to complete the eye movement.

He felt his world moving in slow motion, a slight tremble of whatever he was pressed against made him notice it again. His feet were not touching the ground, but he couldn't be sure. Maybe he was being carried? Why?

Suddenly, rocks were falling down around him, but he couldn't find the voice to yell or let the person carrying him know what was happening. Percy braced himself in slow motion.

"Percy!"

The voice was coming from above him, but sounded like it was filtered through a wall. A wave of dizziness forced him to shut his eyes.

"Hang in there!"

Percy's eyebrows creased in confusion and distress. Hang in there? Why? What was happening? Why couldn't he focus? Where was Annabeth? Annabeth. _Annabeth._  He needed to find Annabeth.

Percy threw his arms and legs out from himself wildly, the world still proving to be nothing but a spinning and blurry mess.

He felt himself being restrained, pushed to the ground and against a hard surface.

Where was Annabeth. He needed to get to her. He needed to make sure she was okay.

He told this to whoever was holding him down, but couldn't hear what was coming out of his own mouth.

He struggled.

Another push, a blurry sound of a voice.

He kicked and punched.

An arm.

Percy bit.

A yell.

A crashing sound. A shockwave making his hair stand up.

Percy screamed.

The distinct sound of an apology, and a stinging across his cheek.

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_(Jason POV)_

Good gods.

Jason sat back from the son of Poseidon, whose sea green eyes were wide and his body frozen while a singular hand crept up to touch his cheek.

Jason guessed he got here at the right time. Frank was apologizing over and over, looking like he was on the verge of tears.

"It's okay, man. He'll be okay." Jason assured Frank, who was now looking warily at Percy.

Jason's blue eyes flicked to Percy's green ones. He could see the guy's mind visibly clearing, his breathing still hard but slowing.

Jason arrived after Frank had crashed backwards into the door, shielding Percy all the way. It was a good thing he did too, because somehow Percy had woken up and who knows what would happen if he woke up on a courtyard bench.

"Percy, can you hear me?" Jason asked slowly.

" _Uhduhh?_ " Percy slurred.

"Percy."

"Did you… did you slap me?" Percy asked, his expression still dazed but not hazy. His cheek was turning pink and he still had his hand pressed to it.

"Dude. Yeah."

"Oh."

"Yeah."

"Where…where are we?" Percy looked hesitant to ask the question, like he thought he should already know but didn't.

"We just got into Hades' big old gross house." Jason answered him, "The others are cleaning up out there still. And don't worry, Annabeth's fine." He added the last part at the expression on Percy's face, and he saw his muscles relax ever so slightly.

Percy leaned back and rested his head against the wall, and Jason watched him carefully.

"Do you need anything? Are you hurt?" Frank asked hesitantly, and Jason saw his muscles tense in a flare of anger for a fraction of a sentence.

Of course Percy didn't want to be babied. Jason knew that from the start. Frank was just too much of a nice guy - not to mention kind of a ditz - to realize these things.

"We better get inside to wait for the others," Jason said before Percy could shoot a snarky retort back at Frank. "It's a better plan than just sitting out here."

Percy nodded and Jason extended a hand, which Percy grabbed and used to pull himself to his feet.

Jason and Percy exchanged glances. Jason nodded, Percy blinked. Frank looked back and forth at them in confusion.

"Alright, let's get inside." Jason grinned, pulling Percy further down the corridor, Frank following behind.

"I hope they'll be alright. They're taking awhile," Frank mused.

Jason didn't say anything. Their friends would be fine. They've been in countless situations just like this one. If he had to choose one handful of people in the entire world that he could entrust his life to, it would be the extended crew of the late Argo II.

So as they pushed onwards into the dark castle, Jason knew they would be fine. They had to be fine. It was just a magical garden.

A blood-curdling scream echoed from behind. It bounced off the walls and electrified even the smallest and thinnest hair on his arms.

Jason fought the urge to look back.


	9. In The Dark

_(Nico POV)_

He was almost there, almost there.

Nico breathed hard, racing after the other demigods towards the broken door Frank had smashed through.

Almost there.

Almost there when his shoelace was captured by a plant and sent him abruptly to the ground face-first.

" _Oof!_ " The breath was knocked out of his body, his legs and arms scraping against the ground as the plants pulled him backwards. Nico kicked and flipped himself over, flourishing his blade with a grunt.

The vines hissed and retracted as Nico scuttled to his feet. The others were already about to enter the palace. They'd absolutely get lost or found by a guard if Nico wasn't there to guide them. He cursed.

His curse was followed by a cold grip on his spine, like someone had reached into his thin body with icy hands and took hold of his bones.

Nico desperately tried to move forward, sweat breaking onto his forehead and plants biting his calfs and ankles.

He willed himself to keep calm. Panicking would do nothing. He could get out of this.

He thought too soon, apparently, because as soon as the words raced through his mind cold hands were wrapping around his neck.

Breath like winter frost ghosted across his ear. Nico ceased all struggling, his pupils shrinking, pausing like a deer in headlights.

"What did I tell you… about damaging the plants?"

Panic surged like ice through his veins.

Nico screamed so loudly his voice broke.

Darkness surrounded him, and he was gone.

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_(Annabeth POV)_

Annabeth was seconds away from entering Hades' castle when a scream sounded behind her.

She whirled around, almost falling and watching in disbelief as she caught the tell-tale signs of a shadow-travel.

Dammit. Nico had been behind her. Why did he shadow-travel away?

Wait. No.

The force of that shadow-travel didn't feel like Nico's. It was…colder, more menacing.

It was  _godly._

Damn.

She turned around and continued running, her footsteps echoing through the damp and dark hallway. She could see Leo up ahead.

The best course of action would be to assume that Hades knew they were in the castle. Assuming anything otherwise could possibly get them killed.

She'd figure out what to do about Nico when they regrouped.

Annabeth pressed onward, rounding corners and skidding down corridors after Leo.

The halls got darker the deeper they ran. It was cold, and sticky. Annabeth wiped sweat off her brow. She was starting to feel gross.

Voices drifted from further up, indicating that they'd found a spot to stop. Annabeth slowed to a brisk walk and approached the crew.

"Annabeth!" Percy exclaimed from the floor as soon as his green eyes landed on her, and Annabeth went to him, smiling and trying not to show any pain on her face.

Jason was sitting next to him, looking around blankly. Frank was standing with Hazel and Leo. Piper knelt down next to Annabeth and Percy.

"Where's Nico? I thought he was right behind you." Piper asked softly, her eyebrows scrunching.

"He's…I think he got captured." Annabeth said calmly, as all the demigods' eyes turned to her. "Something must have gotten ahold of him and shadow-traveled away."

Annabeth felt her hair rise slightly with static. She looked at Jason, who was staring her down with a troubled expression.

"What do you mean?" Jason blanked.

"Nico's gone."

Jason visibly tensed, looking away.

Annabeth knew both he and Jason were close but… didn't Jason trust Nico enough to know he could handle himself? He survived Tartarus. He could handle getting caught by one of his dad's goons. She didn't understand Jason's behavior.

Whatever.

"Anyway, we need to find a good hideout spot and get settled, then we can go talk to Hades. Though I'm sure he already knows we're here." Annabeth stood up, pulling Percy gently to his feet.

"I agree, we can ask to get Nico back from him too." Piper said, brushing off plant bits from her jeans.

There was something else there though, in the way Piper said that. Almost aggressive. And it felt like it wasn't so much of an agreement with Annabeth's statement than a defiant gesture. Towards a specific person. Who would Piper be mad at? And why? Annabeth traced Piper's kaleidoscope gaze, finding that it landed on the son of Zeus.

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_(Nico POV)_

"Dad, please." Nico's voice echoed through the large hall.

He was standing in front of his father's throne, the god of the Underworld sneering at him.

When Nico disappeared in Persephone's garden, it was Hades who captured him and brought him here.

He had then been scolded, of course. Persephone's back garden was a defense mechanism of the castle. It didn't attack everyone who set foot in it, of course. Nico had assumed he and his friends wouldn't set off the trigger to exterminate intruders. Turns out, he'd been wrong. One of the triggers happened to be fire, he learned. Fire was what Leo used to melt the lock. Plants don't like fire. It was common sense, really.

Common sense Nico always seemed to be lacking.

Hades knew Nico brought his friends with him too, and he was mad about it. The lord of the Underworld had always been proud, and not exactly the most pleasant of people when confronted with strangers breaking into his home. Some of those demigods were not strangers, though. That could be Nico's key to winning his father's help.

"You think I'd help you after this? You know you're not allowed in that garden, and for that reason precisely." Hades' voice boomed, "I want your friends out of here by the time the sun rises in the mortal world."

"But dad-"

"Do you think it would look good to my damned brothers if my own son died trying to break into my home? Also, you're grounded."

Nico groaned and then composed himself. "We can't leave."

He needed to convince Hades to help.

Or else Percy was going to die.

"And why not? What could be such a big deal that you need my help with?"

"It's Percy," Nico felt his mouth run dry against his will, "He's sick."

"Should have accepted our offer a few years back to make him a god."

Hades' black eyes were staring him down intensely. Nico felt himself shudder. He had to convince him. He  _had_  to.

"He's dying."

He heard himself say it.

"My previous statement still stands. Demigods die all the time, boy." Hades growled.

"But he's-"

"He's what? Your friend?" Hades threw his arms in the air, crossing his legs on his enormous chair.

"Yes! He's my friend and there are a whole lot of people who count on him! Including me." Nico said loudly, his voice filling the vast room. "The gods have depended on him in the past! Even you!"

Hades grew quiet, looking away. When he spoke again his voice was softer than before.

"Nico, I know what that boy has meant to you, but-"

"But what!"

"You came in through Persephone's back garden. You could have been killed. You broke the rules." Hades said, his voice turning to steel.

"It was-it's an urgent situation!"

"And what would I do if you died? Do you know how much of an embarrassment that would be? I would be the laughing stock of Olympus: Breaking News! Hades looses yet another kid!"

Nico bit his lip.

"Yeah. That's what I thought. Don't try to beg me, Nico. You knew the rules. And you broke the rules."

"And why should he be the one to pay for that?"

Hades didn't answer. Good. Nico had him right where he wanted him.

The silence seemed to last forever before Hades spoke again.

"Fine."

Nico let out a breath he was only half-conscious he was holding.

"I'll help him, but only if he proves himself worthy of helping."

"Thank you."

"Don't thank me, boy. I haven't decided if he's worthy yet. Now get out of my sight."

Nico nodded and calmly exited the room, breaking into a run when he was safely in the hallway.

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_(Percy POV)_

The crew crashed when they reached a vacant room.

It wasn't a huge space, but it would do. There were soft plush couches and underneath their feet was comfortable carpeting. There was even a relatively large television on an elegant wooden stand. The place was decorated perfectly.

Perfect. Perfect for six injured demigods to get blood all over.

Percy gingerly sat himself down onto one of the couches, feeling fatigue finally catching up to him.

He looked down at himself, and wasn't exactly surprised that blood had soaked through the entire front of his shirt. He hoped someone brought an extra. He had lost his backpack falling through a hole in the ceiling of the Underworld.

Not that he remembered any of that, it was just what the others told him.

The others were settling in too, looking worn out as well.

Annabeth crashed down next to him. He studied her for a moment - her blonde hair was everywhere despite being pulled back into a ponytail. Her ever storming eyes were restless despite her weary appearance.

"You okay?" He asked.

Annabeth's tired eyes washed over him for a moment before she looked like she realized she was being spoken to, "Oh! Yeah, I'm fine."

Percy would guess otherwise. He knew her too well.

"You ought to get some sleep," Annabeth said to him, before rummaging through her backpack, taking out a fresh T-shirt and handing it to him.

"Oh, sweet, thanks." Percy said, immediately throwing off his bloody shirt and using the clean parts to wipe dried blood off of himself.

He nonchalantly tried not to feel the anxious eyes of the other demigods in the room on him.

He would so kill for a shower right about now.

He wiggled into the new shirt, exhaling.

Annabeth ruffled his hair, "Okay, sleep time. That goes for everyone. We'll get Nico and confront Hades in the morning."

What she left out was 'if we live through the night', but she didn't need to say it. Percy knew from varying expressions everyone was thinking the same thing.

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_(Leo POV)_

It was late night.

Leo stared at the ceiling, listening to the soft breathing of sleeping half-bloods.

He couldn't sleep. What if Hades said no to helping Percy? Man, that would suck. Not just for Percy, but for everybody. Maybe that was a selfish point of view, but this… this was their last chance. Their last chance to keep Percy Jackson alive.

A quiet rustling sound caught his attention. Leo flicked his brown eyes over to where the noise was emitted and was surprised to see Jason standing up. What the…? Maybe he needed to use the bathroom?

Jason's hercules frame slipped out the door with minimal noise and Leo shrugged to himself.

Halfway through his shrug he saw another person sit up. Was everyone awake at this hour? Leo didn't make a sound as he realized from the dark outlines of braids and feathers that it was Piper. She stood up silently and crept towards the door.

Maybe everyone needed a potty break at 3 in the morning?

Or maybe… they were sneaking away to go make out!

Leo grinned from his place on the floor. This would make  _excellent_  blackmail material.

As Piper exited the room, Leo too stood up, making more noise doing it than Piper and Jason had combined. Okay, okay, he wasn't really one for stealth. But that was alright. Even if he got caught taking purposefully ugly pictures of their sloppy make out fest, it would still be funny.

He tip-toed over a sleeping Frank, who Leo could have sworn was making muffled animal calls in his sleep. Leo reached the door and slipped out into the hall, shutting it quietly behind him.

The walls of the hallway were dark and grey, the walls made of stone and the floor of a plush red carpet that felt great under Leo's bare feet. Huge ventilation systems were visible in certain places on the walls. The only light was the fire from torches. Leo's surroundings looked and smelled exactly like you'd picture Hades' palace to look and smell like. Man, that guy needed to lighten up a little bit.

Leo looked both ways down the hall and saw a silhouette of a person turning a corner - most likely Piper. He took off in a quiet jog, mindful of how much noise he was making and trying to keep it down. He reached the corner and stopped, looking down it. Piper, who he recognized by the torchlight, turned another corner.

Leo followed.

The pattern continued on.

At about the sixth corner, Leo was about to scream when a hand was slapped over his mouth to prevent the sound from coming out.

He'd turned a corner he saw Piper go into and was not-so-pleasantly-surprised to see her standing there waiting for him. He'd almost ran into her, actually.

"Why are you following me?" Piper demanded more than asked, looking pissed.

"Woah, woah, calm down." Leo put his hands up in surrender, "I know you and Jason are planning a little make out fest but-"

"What?"

"A make out fest?"

Piper looked like if she was any less human she would have straight up growled like a lioness.

"So you…weren't planning a make out fest?" Leo corrected anxiously.

Piper sighed and her face fell. She shook her head, "Dude. I wish we were."

"So…. what are you doing then?"

This was so confusing. Leo was so confused. If people got medals for being confused, he had about fifty of them right now.

"I'm following him."

"Why?"

Piper bit her lip, "Cause,"

"…Cause?"

She shrugged, "I want to… make sure of something that's been bothering me."

"And that something is…?" Leo felt impatience trickle into his voice.

She looked more reluctant to answer than he'd ever seen her.

"it's Jason… I don't think…I don't think he likes me anymore."

Was that…defeat he just heard in her tone?

Leo felt himself gain ten more confused medals.

"What?" Leo shook her shoulders playfully, "C'mon, you know that's not true! Jason's so in love with you, Pipes. I guarantee it."

"No," Piper shook her head, "Leo, you don't get it. Things changed while you were away with Calypso. It's not the same as it used to be."

Leo felt a stab in his gut at that. Her multicolored eyes reflected that stab, reminding him of how he felt when he saw Calypso and Thalia talking and looking at each other with those eyes.

He must have been silent for too long because she continued on,

"He doesn't… he doesn't feel the same way anymore. I can tell," She said, "And by following him right now I'll be able to… confirm…stuff."

Leo nodded, "I, uh, I guess, if you want me to leave then, I-"

"No, it's okay… I'd actually rather someone be here with me."

Leo nodded, not sure what to say. He stepped into the hallway and looked down it.

"Well," He said, "Let's find where that Grace got to."

0000000000

Leo and Piper tracked Jason through countless hallways. Twisting, turning, deeper and deeper.

Leo had an increasingly sinking feeling. Piper's brow was permanently creased. He noticed with embarrassment that her footsteps were considerably quieter than his.

Suddenly, she pulled him into a hall roughly and he had to keep from making a very manly squeak.

"What are you doing?!" He whispered hastily.

"He was about to turn around to check if anyone was following." Piper whispered back lowly. She peeked out into the hallway, waiting a moment before she decided it was safe.

They crept forward, pausing when they heard lowered voices.

"Come on, we'll follow him through that vent," Piper pointed to a vent on the wall and Leo quickly used his fire to break the weak metal hinges very quietly, and the two were in the huge vents in no time at all.

They crawled on their hands and knees towards where they knew they'd be able to hear Jason and the person he'd met up with. The vent angled upwards, and soon they found themselves looking out of the vent over Jason's location.

Leo's eyes widened as he took in the barely-visible scene.

It was Jason, alright. But the person he'd evidentially met up with was none other than Nico di Angelo. Did Jason know where he was the entire time or had he escaped the room to go find him? Did Piper know he was going to meet with Nico? Hadn't Nico been captured? Leo glanced at Piper's anxious face before turning back to the scene.

"I can't believe I found you! What happened?" Jason whispered.

Oh, so they hadn't planned it. That was a silly thing to assume anyways.

"I've been looking all over for you guys," Nico whispered back, "My dad caught me. Apparently going in through the garden was a bad idea. He gave me a hard time about it, of course."

Jason grimaced, "I can imagine."

"But anyway, he says he'll help Percy."

Jason breathed out a more than audible sigh of relief.

Lucky, because if Jason hadn't then Leo's sigh of relief would have been just as noticeable.

"Thank Gods." Jason breathed.

"He might be a pain about it though."

"It's okay. We have a chance now."

Okay, this was all well and good, but what did this have to do with Jason not loving Piper anymore. Beside him, Piper was getting tenser and tenser by the minute.

"But are you… are you okay? Hades didn't hurt you or anything, right?" Leo noticed Jason's whisper took on a more…gentle tone. Weird, but not unlike Jason and his infamous mother bear disease.

Leo could practically hear Nico roll his eyes, "No, dumbass. Hades wouldn't hurt his own kid."

"'Kay, good…Nico, I was really worried, y'know?"

Nico was silent. So was Jason. He couldn't see them clearly, but the amount of tension that was steadily rising in the air was unmistakable.

Leo stole another look at Piper, who was glaring somewhere off to the side and into space.

So that was what this was.

Leo grabbed her hand to pull her away. He didn't want to infringe on a moment like this, and he didn't think Piper should either. Jason's business was his own. Who he chose to love was his own decision. Neither he nor Piper had any say in that. It reminded him of when he heard about Percy and Annabeth and the oracle girl Rachel from Camp Half Blood. It reminded him of himself with Calypso. Calypso and Thalia.

Of course, he couldn't be sure about that. And also, of course, he trusted that Calypso still loved him. Well, hopefully. He wasn't giving up anything for good until he found out the truth.

That was what he'd recommend to Piper, if the truth about Jason and her wasn't plain to see here in the darkness of the vents.

"Come on," He whispered softly to her. He didn't want to infringe on this. It wasn't his business. It wasn't.

Piper was about to move to follow him when they heard Nico speak.

"I can't, Jason," He whispered, "I just, I mean, I… I know you want me to be happy, and I know I… listen, I don't want to come between you and Piper."

Leo and Piper were frozen in place.

"…I know." Jason's soft voice sounded tense, "I'm just… confused, right now. I guess."

"Yeah. But 'confused' doesn't excuse you." Nico said and Leo heard him shuffle his feet a little, "I think you should, uh, talk to Piper. Don't leave her in the dark about…all this."

"…Yeah."

"Friends, though, right?"

"Yeah. Friends." Jason's whisper sounded like he was giving a little smile.

Beside him, Piper looked tired now. Her eyes were cast downwards, looking deflated.

He gave her hand a squeeze.

They sat together in silence long after Jason and Nico's footsteps had disappeared down the hallways.


	10. Terrible Dads: The Movie

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First off, I'm soo incredibly sorry that I took....how many months to post this? It's been written since forever ago but I wasn't of the best mental health for awhile there, sorry about that! But anyway, I'll be posting these last few chapters now. I haven't gone back and edited anything..which I probably should do eventually. Maybe someday. Nevertheless, enjoy!

(Hazel POV)

Hazel woke to the sound of the door opening. She raised her head, natural curls cascading over her face. Her hair never liked to cooperate in the morning.

When she got her wild mess of curls under control, Leo and Piper were in the room closing the door with a soft click behind them.

“Where were you guys?”

Leo jumped like he wasn’t expecting anyone to speak, “Oh, Piper needed to pee and didn’t wanna go alone.”

Hazel wouldn’t buy that story for a thousand drachmas, especially by the way Leo jabbered it so quickly, but she nodded as if she did.

She scanned the room, her gaze landing on a sleeping Nico curled up in one of the big comfy-looking chairs.

“Nico!” She exclaimed, so surprised she didn’t realize she should control how loud she was. Frank stirred next to her, lifting his head and groaning.

Nico jerked awake, before looking at her sleepily and rubbing his eyes; which had bags under them big enough to scare a first grader.

“Hi, Hazel.”

Hazel launched into questions, “Where were you? How did you get back? When did you get back? Who caught you in the first place? Did you see your dad? Or, our dad, I mean, but kind of still only your dad. Did he talk to you? What did he-”

“Woah, there.” Nico said tiredly, “Wait till everybody wakes up. I got back early this morning, and don’t worry, I don’t have any bad news.”

Hazel nodded. She was glad he was back and also alive. Alive was good. Being alive was the main priority on this mission.

Hazel glanced towards a snoring Percy.

Yup, still alive.

She prayed to the Gods he’d stay that way.

Frank rose up to a sitting position beside her, yawning as Leo and Piper sat down on a couch.

Leo looked uncomfortable.

Piper looked gods awful. Which was a first for her, Hazel had to admit. She wondered what was wrong… did they run into some trouble somewhere in the castle?

“Ugh,” Frank started sleepily, rubbing his arm, “I think I’m going to be pulling evil underworld splinters from that door our of my arm for the next twenty years.”

Hazel grimaced as he pulled out a little one from the flesh of his arm and tossed it to the wall.

“You should put some antibiotics on your arm then, just to make sure. Who knows what kind of poisonous stuff was in that garden,” Hazel said, giving him a quick peck on the forehead. She felt a blush rising afterwards and almost regretted it, public displays of affection were so embarrassing! But, it was Frank. Giving Frank little kisses was one of her priorities in life.

Nico looked up from momentarily spacing out on the couch, “Wait, Hazel, did you say poisonous?”

“Yeah, why?”

“Just checking.”

Hazel could have sworn his obsidian eyes flicked to where Jason was curled up on an opposing couch.

Her attention was grabbed by a bit of motion near the center of the room, where Annabeth lifted her head off the coffee table where she had passed out on a book the night before. Her hair was a big mess of princess curls, piled on her head in the sloppiest bun Hazel had seen to date.

“Good morning, Annabeth.” Hazel greeted her.

“Hi,” Annabeth grunted, closing the book that had been her accidental pillow with a soft snap, “Give me a few minutes to wake up, then we need to get this show on the road.”

0000000000

_(Nico POV)_

_FLASHBACK : 3 hours ago_

“Yeah. Friends.” Jason’s soft smiling but oddly tense and fake-looking face agreed with him.

Nico sat with him a few minutes more in silence before suggesting they head back to wherever Jason had come from.

The way back turned out to be basically just as long as Nico expected, but what he hadn’t expected was Jason’s awkward and tense silence.

He’d been tense since about twenty minutes ago when they met up in that hallway.

It was an unnerving kind of tense. Like a hawk waiting for the chance to swoop in for a kill. Nico didn’t like it.

“You okay, dude?” Nico broke the silence.

“Fine,” Jason answered, in a very un-fine voice.

“You’re not fine.”

“I feel confused.”

“I already told you that’s not an excuse.”

“No, I mean, I figured that part out. Nico, whatever you thought was going on back there - whatever I thought was going on back there - it wasn’t going on. Whatever it was. I’m- I’m not into you, man, I just… ugh,” He rambled, looking kind of distressed.

Oohhhkay, well, that was good. Nico never really wanted Jason to be into him in the first place. He’d just assumed stupidly that Jason was trying to make some kind of move by leaning in and looking at him like he was planning on kissing him or something. The weird tension coming from Jason didn’t exactly help him derive anything more holy from that situation either.

But now, despite being relieved his best friend wasn’t actually attempting to cheat on Piper, Nico was more lost than he was in the first place.

“Then… what are you confused about?”

“Dude. I don’t know.”

“Yes, you do.”

“Can we just forget it and hurry up? I don’t feel that great, man.”

“Trying to avoid the question won’t get you anywhere, Grace.” Nico scowled, but he could tell the conversation was over.

As they entered the beautifully furnished room with quiet footsteps, Nico was left to ponder just what had happened in the past half an hour.

0000000000

_(Annabeth POV)_

_FLASH FORWARD: PRESENT TIME_

It was finally time.

Time to put this whole ordeal to rest.

They’d walk into that throne room, ask Hades for the cure to Percy’s stupid disease, and be on their merry way. Sickness cured and hearts unburdened.

That being said, stuff like this never went that easily. But a girl could hope, right?

All that would be set into action.

Soon.

As soon as her tired, adorable, powerful idiot woke up from his well-deserved and much-needed sleep.

It looked like he wasn’t having any nightmares either, which she was silently extremely grateful for.

Annabeth took a moment to take inventory.

She counted her most important things - a knife, ambrosia squares, nectar bottles, bottles of saltwater…

Next she checked her other most important things: Her friends. Leo and Piper were awake despite looking like zombies, Hazel and Frank were awake on the floor but only just, Nico was waking up at a good pace on a big chair, and Jason was just beginning to stir on a couch on the other side. Percy was on the couch directly behind her, drooling all over the high-quality fabric of the furniture. Hades could deal with a little sea-godling drool, right?

“Mmmmmph,” Percy hummed from the couch behind her. Annabeth turned to see him absentmindedly rubbing an eye with the back of his hand.

“Hey, Seaweed Brain.” She brushed some hair out of his face.

“G'morning, Wise Girl.” He said softly and sleepily, hair everywhere and green eyes full of warmth. Annabeth’s heart swelled.

“We gotta get going soon,” She murmured, pressing a kiss to the side of his face that wasn’t covered in spit.

Percy hummed in agreement and sat up slowly, wiping the drool off his face with his sleeve. Annabeth watched his face carefully as he suppressed a cringe while he straightened.

“Can I uh,” Annabeth gestured vaguely to his belly. Percy’s eyes flickered to the other demigods in the room (who were talking in generally soft voices amongst themselves) for a moment before finding their way back to her grey ones.

“Sure,” He shrugged.

He sat back against the couch as Annabeth grabbed a bottle of the saltwater. Percy pulled his shirt up to his chest gingerly as she turned her attention back to him.

His flesh was an angry red, covered in bruises and vein-like deep purple patterns imprinted into his skin. It seemed to travel up and down further than what was uncovered, but she didn’t ask him to reveal more. Annabeth stopped herself from sucking in a deep breath, it was alright. She could handle this. She’d handled way worse things before.

She willed her hands not to shake as she poured the water into her palm and pressed it over his muscled but incredibly damaged middle. There were little breaks in the skin that she dribbled more saltwater in than necessary. Instead of crying out in pain when the ocean water hit his wounds, she could hear Percy breathe out in bliss. His muscles started to relax, letting Annabeth cover more of the inflicted areas.

He must have been in a lot of pain, last night. How he could even stand up was a godworthy feat. Annabeth pushed his shirt up further and poured the substance steadily over the place his heart was located.

His chest was the worst of all, even worse than his middle. It looked like he was growing a new heart right under his skin - black and purple veins branching out, red and sickly yellow, tangled in bruises and enflamed skin cells. It spread and branched up, up, up, up almost to his collarbone.

It was horrifying.

Annabeth refused to react.

She emptied the water bottle over the area, watching as it as it ran down his belly.

“Thanks,” Percy breathed, shimmying his shirt back down.

“No problem.” Annabeth smiled softly, mentally shaking herself of the image of Percy’s chest now branded into her skull, “We need to get moving now. It looks like Nico got back last night, so we don’t need to worry about it.”

Percy looked surprised, “Oh, good.” He leaned to the side, probably to see Nico, and gave a wave to him, “Hey, Nico.”

Annabeth heard Nico greet him back as she helped him to his feet.

She turned around and stuffed her things back into her backpack. The others all looked much more awake now. Good. Who knew what was going to happen today.

“Wait, before we leave, I need to check something.” Annabeth looked up to see Nico say.

She tried not to be annoyed. All she wanted to do was get this over with. Was she the only one who knew just how urgent this was? Just because Percy was strong didn’t mean he wasn’t in excruciating pain right this moment. Just because Percy was good at pretending didn’t mean any day now he couldn’t have an attack strong enough to end his life.

Ugh.

She took a breath to compose her nerves.

“What do you need to check?”

“Some of the plants outside in Persephone’s garden.” He answered.

“Why?”

“I have a hunch about something. I can go by myself, I’ll catch up to you.”

Annabeth didn’t like the sound of this.

“What if Hades refuses if you aren’t there? Nico, what’s this about?” Annabeth asked, exasperated. By now everyone was paying close attention. Nico’s eyes flickered to Jason, and so Annabeth’s eyes followed. Jason looked terrible, Annabeth could tell with just a glance.

Was something wrong with Jason?

Annabeth was surprised to discover she didn’t care.

At this point her mind was only on Percy’s safety and well-being.

“Nico, we seriously don’t have time for this.” Her voice was steely.

“Annabeth’s right,” Leo chimed in, his gaze darkened in a way Annabeth hadn’t seen before.

“There’s something that could jeopardize everything, though.” Nico protested.

Annabeth almost cared, for like, a second.

“We’ll take care of it later,” She growled, taking Percy’s hand and leading him towards the door with cold determination.

“Maybe we should listen to N-” Percy started before Annabeth stopped him with a sharp glance.

She opened the door.

“We’re going to see Hades and get a cure for Percy. We’ll deal with ‘things that might jeopardize the mission’ later. Right now I’m pissed off, in a hurry, and not about to put up with this bullshit.”

0000000000

_(Hazel POV)_

The group walked in silence through the corridors of Hades’ enormous castle.

Hazel wasn’t sure if it should be called a castle exactly, but it kind of looked like it belonged on the set of Beauty and The Beast, so she guessed it was a fair term.

Nico was leading them, since he was the only one who knew where they were going. Hazel had a feeling he was on edge.

Actually, Hazel had a feeling everyone was on edge.

Percy and Annabeth walked close behind him. The son of Poseidon looked like he was trying to conceal multiple winces with every step he took.

Leo and Piper were walking together, negative energy seeming to radiate from them.

Hazel had a guess that negative energy was at least partly something to do with Jason, who walked at the back of the group and when Hazel turned to get a look at him, he didn’t even seem like he noticed. Like a zombie.

Hazel walkedt palms were starting to feel kind of sweaty. Gross, but she could understand.

Hazel’s nerves were on fire.

The flames brightened with intensity as the entrance to the throne room came into view.

The entrance was an intricately designed arch built into the wall, huge black doors more than three times her height extending skywards.

The silence was deafening as they stopped in front of it.

This was it.

The ancient, powerful, Greek version of her father was just beyond the wall.

Percy, her friend, her comrade in battle who she’d started to think of as a big brother, was finally going to get his cure.

Everything would be okay again.

Nico slowly put his hands on the doors, and pushed.

0000000000

_(Percy POV)_

The inside of Hades’ throne room was similar to how he remembered it, but he couldn’t tell exactly.

His vision was just short of swimming. Every step was another jolt of fresh pain up his entire body, curling up his spine like a snake making his body its new home.

He fought to keep his breathing even and not just take repeated heaving gasps. The less panicked his friends were right now, the more smoothly this would go.

Percy’s ocean-deep seafoam gaze met the obsidian black holes of the eyes belonging to the god sitting on the throne.

Percy found himself praying to any gods he could think of that Apollo was right.

“Father,” Nico’s voice echoed and bounced off the walls as the ex-crew of the late Argo II took deliberate and loaded steps towards the throne.

“I was wondering when you’d come.” Hades said, the words smoothly slipping from his tongue, “I thought the guards were lying when they said you brought Romans, yet here they are.” Hades gave a small nod to Hazel.

“However,” He said, his voice dipping into some kind of otherworldly growl, “The famous Percy Jackson breaking into my home just to beg for his life is much more exciting.”

Oh, what the hell. Percy wondered if that was an appropriate expression right now, since, you know, they were meeting with the god of death. In the underworld. Otherwise known as hell.

Nevertheless about variations of names for the Underworld and which one would best suit this situation, Percy bit his lip to keep himself from swearing the god out right then and there.

“Nobody’s here to beg,” Percy said sharply.

“Oh?” Hades grinned, like he found a new game to play, or beat his entire family in an intense game of Mario Kart.

Percy kept his comments about Hades obviously unbrushed teeth to himself.

“I wanna make a deal,” Percy said.

He’d been thinking about this, it wasn’t like he suddenly came up with a great foolproof fantastic deal to make to the god of death. He’d thought this through. Carefully, meticulously.

Well, that would be the case if Percy ever thought anything through in his entire life.

Or if he was anything like Annabeth.

“And what deal is that?” Hades said, still smiling. Still greasy. Still in need of a toothbrush.

This would be a great time to tell Hades what the deal was, if Percy had spent at least three seconds to think about that part before blurting out absolute BS about making a deal.

Okay, time to come up with a deal.

What would Hades want that Percy had? A quest? Probably not. Babysitter for Cerberus? Even less likely.

Percy slowy came to an extreme realization.

He had nothing. Nothing he had or was capable of was going to sway Hades. He really shouldn’t have said the deal thing. All he did was dig a new hole he’d have difficulty getting out of.

But judging by the swaying of his vision and the firey ice-cold feeling slowly crawling up his abdomen, the chances of getting out of that hole alive were slim to none.

“He’ll stay here. In the underworld, for good.”

Percy turned with wide eyes to Annabeth, who was staring stormy daggers at Hades as the words fluidly fell from her mouth.

Hades wasn’t smiling anymore, staring back at Annabeth with a 'go on,’ kind of expression.

Percy was aware of the dropped jaws of the other demigods in the room, he’d have to be deaf and blind not to physically feel their diverse reactions, and even then he’d feel their emotions.

“He’ll be in your custody to use, rather than Olympus. I already talked with Poseidon about it on the slight chance it would ever come to this.”

Annabeth…talked with Poseidon? About Percy? Of course, there was no way he could ever be mad at her about this, or even anything else, he knew better than anyone how fried her nerves were. He hated being the cause of the immense amounts of negative emotions he was sure were crashing relentlessly down on her.

But Poseidon hadn’t even contacted Percy this entire time. Why had he talked with Annabeth and not him? Why didn’t Annabeth tell him? He’d even forced it out of his mind for awhile, just to not dwell on the fact that his father was purposefully ignoring him. Again. Except, contrary to the other times his father ignored him, this time was crucial. This time, there might not be another chance for Poseidon to pretend his only demigod son didn’t exist.

If Percy was any weaker of a person, the weight of the immense, suffocating sadness pressing on his chest would have sent him gasping for breath onto the floor.

Instead, he let none of those feelings show through. Now was not the time, and here was not the place.

Hades crossed a leg over the other, “I suppose that’s a fair trade. It’s not every day Olympus offers up their precious heroes, necessary or not. I’m sure I can find a use for him….the Underworld is a vast place, after all.”

The look on his face was absolutely cruel.

Percy stole a glance at Hazel, whose golden eyes were gleaming with hostility.

Hades was sure giving her a great first impression, huh?

Percy didn’t look at Nico.

He already knew the guy was about to shoot metaphorical compact death bullets through each of his father’s pores.

“So I accept, Jackson,” Hades leaned back in his chair and pushed some of his hair (that desperately needed about a gallon of shampoo rinsed through it) out of his face, “It’s a deal.”

“Fine.” Percy forced himself to keep his voice level. He didn’t know what was waiting for him in the service of Hades. Quests, maybe? Plans to infiltrate Olympus?

But for now, he needed to focus on living.

It would be great, focusing. Being able to see and hear clearly without feeling like the entire world was swaying would be fantastic.

“Spill it, then.” Percy said, voice lowered, “Apollo said you might know how to fix this.”

“Don’t listen to Apollo,” Hades said, taking on a more serious tone and leaning forward to rest his elbows on his knees, “He knows nothing of Underworld illnesses. Asking him for help is like asking Hera for relationship advice.”

Percy saw Jason nod in solemn agreement.

“Point is, Jackson, Apollo thinks I 'might’ know how to fix this? He’s wrong. I absolutely know how to fix this.”

Hades’ eyes glinted and his greasy lips curled into a snakelike smile,

“And so do you.” 

 


	11. And Throw Away The Key

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warnings for emetophobia and blood in this one... this fic is rated M for a reason!

_(Percy POV)_

 

“…What?”

 

Why was this always happening. Why was it that every answer was supposedly ‘under his nose the entire time’.

 

Maybe he was just dumber than he thought he was, or something.

 

“You heard me.” Hades continued to grin through his obviously unsanitary dental wreck, “It’s been right in front of you this entire time.”

 

Percy stared at him with wide eyes.

 

Realization hit him like a freight train.

 

Unfortunately, that wasn’t the only thing that hit him like a freight train.

 

Before he could fully piece together his rapidly rearranging thoughts, he was slammed over the head with what sounded and felt like an enormous bag of bones.

 

He winced and covered his head on instinct, jumping backwards as his opponent landed on skeletal legs across from him. Well, yeah. It was in fact a big bag of bones. Though this skeleton was definitely not one of Nico’s.

 

Percy felt his heartbeat speed up and immediately took a deep breath to try to calm it. The action wound up doing more bad than good, and he realized this as pain spread out from his lungs through his chest like a deep red flower of torture.

 

“Alright, Jackson, your first mission under my command is to survive for the next twenty-four hours,” His voice dripped with dark venom that sounded both excited and delighted, “I wonder what your father will do to me then?”

 

“Dad! This was not part of the deal!” Nico screeched, anger rising around him like storm clouds.

 

Hades ignored him, “Your enemies are programmed to remove any impurities from the Underworld. That includes both you and your friends…well, most of them. Like I said, you have twenty-four hours. However, judging by how you look, you don’t even have that long.”

 

Hades erupted into a cloud of black smoke and disappeared as skeleton warriors began to rain from the ceiling.

 

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_(Leo POV)_

 

Holy.

 

Shit.

 

It was like everything was happening on hyperdrive - a feeling he was used to with his extreme case of ADHD - but this hyperdrive was about twenty times faster.

 

Hades was gone in an instant, which happened to be the same instant he ducked right in time for Jason’s fist to go sailing over his head.

 

“Dude!” He yelped, backing up, “What’s your problem!? Fight the skeletons, not me!”

 

Jason didn’t look like he heard him.

 

Jason didn’t look like Jason either. His eyes were downright hazy, and his blank expression didn’t show any kind of reaction.

 

Leo’s already-frying brain ran even faster than it had before. What had Nico said about 'something that might jeopardize the mission’? Was that the reason he kept glancing warily at Jason?

 

Leo didn’t have time to figure it out as Jason lunged for his throat. He slapped the side of his face, enough to send the son of Zeus sprawling to the ground but not seemingly enough to bring him to his senses.

 

The others were engaged in battles with the skeletons themselves. Leo needed to get Nico’s attention.

 

“Nico! Jason’s out of control!” He screeched, pointing down at the larger demigod getting to his feet.

 

Nico’s dark eyes flashed with urgency, “I know! I told you guys something was gonna happen!”

 

“You never mentioned-this, whatever this is!” Leo roared back, kicking Jason back down again.

 

“I’ll deal with him - the skeletons won’t attack things that belong in the Underworld - that’s me and also Jason right now. I think he’s infected with some kind of poison.”

 

“What the hell does that mean?!” Annabeth’s voice cut through as her knife went through another skeleton. She was standing back to back with Percy, though the latter didn’t exactly look like he’d hold up much longer.

 

“Annabeth, did you see any plants in Persephone’s garden?- I mean, like, plants with teeth? The little ones. Because those are specially designed,” Nico spoke loudly and quickly, “To bite their victims and turn them into gross Underworld zombie things- it’s reservable. there’s a cure. We can find it. Preferably before he kills one of us.”

 

“I saw those, yeah.” Annabeth called back, “He must have gotten bitten- damn!” She thrust her knife into a disgusting skeletal forehead.

 

Leo was suddenly and momentarily airborne before he had the chance to let out even the unmanliest squeak. Jason had literally threw him into the air.

 

Aaaaand now he was falling.

 

Leo twisted in mid air and shot fire as hard as he could downwards out of his palms. He didn’t really know what he was doing but this action could have a few possibilities: One, it makes Jason back away, Two, it slows his fall, or three, it works like some kind of awesome jetpack and he flies away.

 

Leo quickly discovered that the only possibility that was realistically going to happen was the first one. He hit the ground and redirected his flames to where Jason had backed off to. Leo stopped a few feet away from him.

 

Jason might be on his nerves right now and some weird drooly Underworld dude, but he was still his friend. Leo didn’t want to hurt him.

 

“Alright, everybody, here’s the plan!” Annabeth’s voice once again cut through the clanking of weapons against bones, “We have to split up! Hazel and Frank - stay here and finish these guys off, then come after me! Me and Nico are taking Percy to safety. Leo and Piper: you two deal with Jason!”

 

Leo groaned out loud. The last thing he wanted to do was be caught between Piper and Jason once they got him out of this zombie stupor.

 

He immediately understood, however, that Nico needed to take Percy because there would be a higher chance of the skeletons leaving him alone. It made sense. Annabeth’s whole plan made sense. He respected that. But that didn’t mean he wanted to deal with the son of Zeus and his zombie problems. Let alone his relationship problems.

 

Leo grabbed a stray bone off the floor and threw it, hitting Jason square in the forehead, “Come on, dumbass! Catch me if you can!” He then took off out of the throne room, grabbing Piper’s hand on the way out.

 

He turned over his shoulder and called to the rest of his crew, “Good luck, team! We’ll take care of Jason; you guys get Aquaman to safety! We’re counting on you!”

 

0000000000

 

_(Nico POV)_

 

Nico bolted towards Percy the second Zombie Jason disappeared out the door after Leo and Piper.

 

He was beside the son of Poseidon in an instant, “Percy, get on my back.”

 

“Won’t that like…crush you? In the woods that one time was tough enough for you.” Percy said lamely. His eyes almost looked foggy and he was swaying ever so slightly even in his battle stance.

 

This was not good.

 

Come to think of it, Percy having an attack right now might be the worst possible thing to happen.

 

“Trust me, I’ll be okay. Just do it. You can’t run - don’t even think about arguing with me.”

 

Percy nodded with a faraway look in his eyes as he awkwardly piggy backed Nico.

 

Nico noticed with a start that Percy was significantly lighter than he was back at camp when he found him covered in blood in the forest. Back then, Nico had barely been able to hold up his dead weight. Now, he was able to stand with relatively sturdy legs under the weight of the son of Poseidon.

 

It was extremely unsettling.

 

“Let’s move!” Annabeth shouted and made a beeline for the door. Nico didn’t hesitate as he took off after her, dodging flying skeletal appendages as best he could.

 

“Good luck, guys!” He shouted as he passed Hazel and Frank.

 

Gold met black as Nico passed by his half-sister. Time seemed to stretch on for an infinity and she nodded with the confidence of a goddess, curls bouncing and eyes gleaming, skeleton dust smeared on her left cheek.

 

“We’ll take it from here!” She exclaimed and Nico pressed onwards, skidding into the hall as Annabeth practically tore the door off its hinges.

 

He didn’t slow down to wait for her - Nico could feel Percy fading in and out of consciousness by the way he wavered on his back. Time was precious.

 

Who knew how many more attacks Percy could stand until it was his last straw.

 

No, he couldn’t afford to be negative right now. He needed to get Percy to safety.

 

Nico flew down the halls, knowing exactly where he was going and knowing Annabeth was close on his tail. He knew the best place to take him was (obviously) the castle med room. On the other side of the castle. However, the more steps he took the more sure he was that he wouldn’t be able to get to there in time.

 

They’d have to make due with a regular room.

 

“Nico….”

 

Nico turned his head to listen to Percy’s unexpected raspy and uneven voice,

 

“Dude, slow down….. I’m gonna puke.”

 

Dammit.

 

Nico slowed to a walk and Annabeth raced ahead to the nearest door, pulling it open.

 

“This will have to do, we don’t have much of a choice.” She said, sounding on the verge of panic. Nico passed her as he entered the room, which didn’t look all that different than the one they were staying in honestly, except with an added bathroom, which didn’t matter really but it would come in handy. Nico set Percy gingerly in one of the chairs, not even blinking an eye at the wet feeling of foreign blood dripping down the back of his shirt as he did so.

 

“Keep your eyes open, Percy.” Nico said steadily, grabbing the guy’s shoulders and squeezing them, “You’re gonna be alright.”

 

He definitely didn’t look alright. There was blood seeping through the front of his t-shirt, not too much but not little enough to not be worried about it.

 

Percy nodded but the cloudy dissociated look in his eyes told him his words didn’t reach him.

 

“We need water.” Annabeth said sharply, throwing open the door to the bathroom and Nico heard the sound of faucets being hastily turned on.

 

“We need to splash his face or something, then he can tell us what the hell Hades meant.” She said, coming back into the room and lifting Percy, supporting his weight as they slowly shuffled into the bathroom.

 

Nico followed, feeling slightly out of place as Annabeth guided him to shakily put his hands in the sink and splash water over his face.

 

Gradually, his eyes cleared slightly and he looked considerably more awake, yet a deep dread seemed to cast shadows over his face.

 

Percy stood there for a minute or two that seemed to stretch on forever, blinking like memories and information was being fed back to him.

 

“I…..am gonna puke.” Percy stated, and promptly turned and threw up about a pint of blood into the toilet.

 

0000000000

_(Piper POV)_

 

Running away from your newly-zombified boyfriend while your best friend screamed his head off beside you wasn’t an experience Piper was too keen on trying again anytime soon.

 

Jason was fast - especially for a zombie dude who was slamming into walls by accident every ten strides.

 

They were nearing the door that they used to get in from Persephone’s garden. Piper flicked away sweat from her forehead, pressing onward.

 

“Wait a minute,” Piper called to Leo, who was just a stride and a half behind her, “Did Nico ever tell us what the cure even is?”

 

“Gah! No, he didn’t! That asshole!” Leo growled, “Frankly, I have no idea what we’re gonna do!”

 

Piper bit back a swear.

 

They bursted out of the door to the garden, not missing a step as they dove into the mess of vines and disgustingly good smelling flowers.

 

Piper heard Jason yelp and grimaced - he must have slammed into some thorns or something. But now was not the time to be getting sad about her boyfriend’s new condition. They needed to find that cure.

 

Leo had dashed ahead of her and was slicing through vines and branches with precise fire on his fingertips.

 

“The deeper in we go, the more plants we’ll find and the better chance of slowing him down while we think of something” He said through gritted teeth.

 

“But have you thought of anything yet?”

 

“No!”

 

“You’re a mechanic! You’re supposed to be good at impromptu fixes!”

 

“Unfortunately, your boyfriend Superman Zombie Edition 2.0 isn’t a machine, Piper!”

 

Well, he did have a point.

 

Piper watched as Leo struggled with slicing down a particular plant that only turned from green to purple when he hit it with his fire. Upon closer inspection, she noticed it started blistering under the heat, transforming slowly into what looked like a whole different plant.

 

Piper’s first thoughts were along the lines of wishing Persephone didn’t include weird fire-activated plants into her gardening plans.

 

Piper’s second thoughts were accompanied with a gasp of realization.

 

“Leo, we need to find the plants that bit Jason in the first place!”

 

“What? Why? Are you nuts? That’s like, super dangerous considering our situation.” Leo said, finally breaking the now-purple blistered vine and stepping through.

 

“Just trust me, I have an idea.”

 

0000000000

_(Annabeth POV)_

 

“…So that’s…your idea?”

 

Percy nodded grimly at her expression of distress.

 

“I’d love to say that what you came up with was completely off from what Hades meant but…I think you’re right.” Nico said hesitantly from his place leaning against the doorjamb to the bathroom, “I don’t like it, but it might be the only way.”

 

Percy nodded again.

 

They were still in the bathroom, Percy no longer puking horrid smelling blood but still looking worse for wear. He was now sitting on top of the toilet seat while Annabeth sat on the side of the tub holding his hand.

 

Nico flicked his eyes towards her, “I can’t guarantee that this is what Hades had in mind, because I’m not him, but it’s the best shot he’s got.”

 

Annabeth swallowed.

 

She didn’t like this at all. A terrible feeling rose up in her stomach. The chances of Percy making it out of today alive were getting slimmer by the minute.

 

Nico suddenly looked up towards the door and less than a second later Annabeth heard the distinct sound of hollow bones slamming against wood. Despite having Nico with them as their anti-skeleton being, they could probably sense Percy’s current impurities from a hundred miles away.

 

Why were the skeletons here in the first place? Hadn’t Hazel and Frank said they’d take care of it? What if they….were defeated?

 

Annabeth turned towards the deep endless mass of green underwater mystery depicted in Percy’s eyes. If they didn’t act now, she’d never see those eyes again. There was no other choice. They were out of time.

 

Nico gave her a tiny nod and left, Annabeth heard the sound of him opening the door and taking a brave step into the madness, shutting it tight behind himself.

 

“Annabeth…”

 

“Percy, promise me you can do this.”

 

He was silent. She turned to face him completely.

 

Sad but determined green eyes under sweat-drenched dark bangs stared back at her. The smell of blood and sickness radiated from him more strongly than anything she’d ever experienced.

 

“Promise me.”

 

The tension in the air was thick enough that she felt it stick to the back of her throat.

 

His voice was a raspy whisper, “I promise.”

 

“I can’t lose you.” She whispered back, pressing her forehead into his shoulder so he wouldn’t see the tears that threatened to spill over.

 

“You won’t.” He said back, running a hand through her hair.

 

Annabeth could tell he wasn’t sure if he was lying or not. Her heart twisted painful way she hadn’t thought was possible.

 

This illness, this sickness, was different from all the other times she almost lost Percy. Those other times she had choices, chances. She always had something she could do to save him.

 

Not this time. This time, there was absolutely nothing she could do. She had no plans, no tricks, no quick smart ideas.

 

She was helpless.

 

Slowly, she separated from him and pressed a kiss to his forehead. Annabeth stood up abruptly and moved over to the way out of the bathroom.

 

“Promise me one more thing,” Annabeth said, looking back at him.

 

“Yeah?”

 

“Promise you won’t do anything stupid, Seaweed Brain.”

 

He cracked a grin at that.

 

“Sure thing, Wise Girl.”

 

As she closed the bathroom door and made her way to the door where she knew Nico was fighting for their lives on the other side in the hallway she made a silent prayer to any Gods that were listening.

 

Please, please, let Percy be right about what Hades meant.

 

As she turned the doorknob she paused and took the image of last little grin Percy gave her and imprinted it into her brain. She placed it in the depths of her heart, locked it, and threw away the key.


	12. Epidemiology

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the second to last chapter of this story, and the one most of you have been waiting for. I want to apply the M rating heavily onto this chapter for blood and gore, so proceed with caution!
> 
> As this story comes to a close, I just want to thank everyone who bookmarked, left kudos, commented, or even just read this story. It sounds cheesy but sometimes just knowing that someone read my work makes me happy on my bad days.

_(Piper POV)_

“Is this it?” Leo asked, pointing at a particularly vicious-looking patch of flowers. The flowers had teeth that looked like they belonged in a horror movie, a green sticky-looking substance coating them that absolutely reeked.

“Let’s give it a shot,” Piper nodded.

“Alright, here we go,” Leo said. He stopped and breathed deeply for a moment before lifting his arms and shooting fire out of his palms at the flowers.

The sound of pounding footsteps took her back to the real immediate threat at hand. Piper turned so she was back-to-back with Leo, drawing her glittering dagger from its sheath.

Her boyfriend stumbled into the open. Piper grimaced. He looked awful - shirt ripped in several places and about a gallon of drool dripping from his chin. Gross. No way she’d be kissing that mouth for the next few weeks while she worked on getting the image out of her head. Well…that is… if Jason even still wanted to kiss her in the first place.

She raised her dagger in front of her face.

“Are they having any reaction?” She asked over her shoulder, never taking her eyes off of the son of Zeus.

“Yes!” Leo exclaimed, “But…now I think we need to let them bite him again.”

“What do you mean?”

“To be honest with ya, I don’t know how to explain it in the amount of time we have.”

“That doesn’t make any s-”

Just as Jason’s blue eyes flashed and lunged at her, Piper’s sentence was cut off as she was grabbed by the arm and pulled sharply to the side. Leo pulled her out of the way as Jason stumbled forward with an undignified yell, crashing straight into the plants that caused his stupor in the first place.

Piper suddenly saw what Leo meant by having them bite Jason again. The green substance that had been flowing from their teeth seemed to have been the only thing affected by the flames - evaporated.

Piper felt her stomach turn as Jason snarled and twisted, the plants sinking their fangs into his arms. They seemed to be….sucking on his skin.

“They’re taking the poison out of him,” Piper realized aloud, eyebrows rising.

“Yeah, and they’re gonna inject it back in him if we don’t get him out now.” Leo said, rushing forward and pulling Jason by the leg out of the patch of petals and teeth. The son of Zeus writhed on the floor of the garden, and Piper watched in horror as his body suddenly went limp.

“Jason!” She cried, falling to her knees next to him.

“My head hurts so bad,” He responded groggily, blue eyes blinking out haziness and becoming clearer by the second. Jason propped himself up on his elbows and Piper felt tears well up in her eyes, swallowing hard so they wouldn’t spill over.

“How… do you feel?”

“Like I just got hit in the head with ten bricks,” Jason confessed, and then turned his head to Leo, “Oh, Leo, hey. What happened? Where are the others?”

“You got zombified, dude. It was like you were a robot programmed to hunt anything foreign to the underworld….it was kind of really scary. And gross. Oh, but you didn’t hurt anyone, don’t worry. Also I didn’t have any idea you could drool so much.” Leo said.

Piper almost cracked a huge grin, and then stopped herself, feeling empty despair swirling in the pit of her stomach. Jason was back, and that was great…but…he still only cared about where the others were instead of her. He cared about Nico more than her.

Maybe it was selfish to be upset about it, but what could she do? Demigod or not, jealousy didn’t pick favorites.

“You mean you want to know where Nico is.”

The words were out of Piper’s mouth before she even knew what she was saying.

“What?” Jason turned back to her with a confused expression, “Well yeah, Nico and also the rest of the crew.”

“I’m gonna…..leave, I think,” Leo said uncomfortably, slowly walking backwards into the bushes, “You two take care of whatever…this is. Have fun. Don’t kill eachother. Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do….Actually, on second thought, forget that last part. Just, like, play nice, kids.”

And with that, he hightailed himself back into the thick brush of Persephone’s garden.

In her head Piper silently thanked Leo for the privacy.

“But it’s different with Nico,” Piper said after a few loaded seconds, playing with a braid to give her hands something to do, “I know how you feel about him.”

“Pipes - what?”

“Don’t play dumb, Jason. I heard you two in the hallway.”

Jason’s eyes widened and he suddenly slapped a hand over his face, groaning, “You are the second person who misinterpreted that.”

“And who was the first?” She snapped.

“Nico.”

Piper’s eyes widened, “What?”

“He thought I was like, hitting on him or something. And I don’t know exactly what Leo meant by ‘programmed to hunt anything foreign to the underworld’, but I think that has something to do with it. Whatever made me go berserk like that was probably messing with my head since i got infected…. it was probably those flowers, right? After they bit me my head felt so messed up.”

Piper nodded, refusing to look at him, “Yeah.”

“Then yeah. That’s it.”

“If you weren’t hitting on Nico, then, what were you doing?”

“I don’t know that part exactly, to be honest. I kind of felt like I needed to protect him from everything non-underworld-ish, and kind of felt like I wanted to kill him at the same time.”

“Well, what do you feel about him right now?”

Jason smiled, “That he’s my friend whose skinny bony ass is probably getting whooped by skeletons.”

Piper smiled back at him shyly, “And so, what do you feel…about me?”

His sky blue eyes softened and Piper felt her heart swell, “I feel like I owe you an apology for making you think for one second that I didn’t love you. Accident or not.”

Piper pulled him into a hug.

“I’m sorry, Pipes.”

“Don’t worry about it,” She said, happiness making butterflies fly around in her stomach. She gave his cheek a kiss.

0000000000

  
_(Leo POV)_

Leo was back running through the halls of Hades’ castle when he decided what his next plan of action should be. Picking a leaf out of his hair, he turned a corner. He would find Hades, and make him revoke the sentence of basically life in service he placed on Percy.

Because if Percy survived this, there was no way Leo was going to leave without him. He was sure the others felt the same way.

Speaking of the others… Leo prayed to the gods that Piper and Jason made up. He didn’t like broken friendships - no between him and a friend and not between two of his own friends either.

What he disliked more than broken friendships? Broken relationships.

He raced down the halls, opening every door he could find. He’d find Hades. Even if he had to fight a hundred skeletons and run through a thousand bad smelling corridors, he’d find him.

0000000000

  
_(Percy POV)_

Percy stood in the bathroom, trying to keep his breathing under control, staring into the mirror. This was it. He knew how to get rid of this.

It had taken him approximately ten seconds to realize what Hades meant when he said that Percy 'already knew’ the cure. How hadn’t he realized it before? It was so simple.

Percy was a son of Poseidon. Sons of the sea god have control over water. Percy had even tested the limits himself in Tartarus, against that wailing goddess who he almost drowned with her own tears. Back then… he had lost himself. He’d scared himself. Worse than that, he knew that it had shaken Annabeth to the core.

He never wanted her to be scared. He hated that. What he hated even more than that? Annabeth being scared of him.

That was why he didn’t want anyone to witness what he was going to do.

Assuming his disgusting Tartarus sickness was some kind of poison by the way it spread up his torso like liquid, there was a chance there was water in it. Even the slightest amount of water would work.

He’d have to extract the sickness himself. Out of his own bloodstream. With his own two hands.

That was enough to give anyone nightmares.

  
Taking off his shirt, Percy slowly lifted the knife he had secured in his belt some time ago. He mostly kept it for emergency situations. This was definitely an emergency situation.

He stared at it. It was simple, celestial bronze, nothing special. After several minutes, Percy positioned it against his abdomen where the dark bruises and sickly colored blotches were most prominent. Where the sickness had forced blood to even break his skin in hundreds of tiny minuscule slits and cuts.

Percy mentally prepared himself. If he was going to make it through this without throwing up, it’d be a miracle.

If he could make it through this without accidentally triggering himself into another episode, it would be an even bigger miracle.

Slowly, he pressed the knife in and dragged it in a straight line. The cut wasn’t too deep at all, but it definitely stung. Percy dropped the knife into the sink and took a deep breath. He willed his blood to not seep through the cut.

He felt his stomach churn. Percy had done many gruesome things in his life, but never something like this. It almost made him sick. Images flashed before his eyes of the crying goddess he’d had every intent of drowning. Percy swallowed. He had a feeling it was against some kind of godly code to use his powers to control things like blood and poison.

However, it was the best shot he had at not dying today.

Percy took another moment to breathe.

He was not going to lose track of where he was or the gravity of this situation. He was going to stay present.

Then he moved his hand over the injury and felt a familiar pull in his gut.

Percy focused on the sickening deep black substance, easily identifiable by how it felt like sludge. How it felt like it was resisting him harder than any water based substance had ever resisted him before.

He made a pulling motion and suppressed a gasp as a substance black as night squeezed reluctantly out of the cut.

It burned.

Burned on his skin like molten lava.

Percy grabbed a towel off the side f the sink and wiped the stuff off of himself, throwing it in the sink in horror.

It smelled absolutely horrible. Like…rotten stale blood. If blood could rot. Percy wasn’t exactly sure.

He focused again and this time felt a stronger pull in his gut. More pushed out of the open cut, and he watched in horror as it pushed through the many smaller slits and cuts in his abdomen. He concentrated harder. Don’t focus on the pain. Pull, pull harder. It started to run in slow hot rivers. He leaned himself over the sink so it would drip instead of settle into the fabric of his pants.

He wouldn’t let Tartarus get the best of him. Wouldn’t- oh, he felt his skin burning. He smelled his skin burning. There was no way he’d let himself throw up. No, no-did he just make a noise? No, of course not. Just keep pulling. Focus on the tight feeling of his gut, separate the sickness from his blood. Keep his blood in his body. Force the sludge out. He could do this-he could do this. He wasn’t gonna die. He wasn’t gonna die. He wasn’t gonna-

Percy stiffened as he tasted the familiar metallic wet taste of blood in the back of his throat. No, he couldn’t afford to get distracted. He muttered to himself as he forced more black liquid from his pores.

He slowly moved his hand up near his heart. He realized slowly that he could feel it….beating. Beating despite the sickening fluids swirling in his bloodstream. In a wave of courage, he separated his bloodstream from the horror and pulled.

Percy felt his muscles spasm. That’s when he felt his heart stop.

All he could feel was cold for a second. Cold, cold, freezing cold against the molten heat dancing in rivers across his skin.

His vision flickered in and out. Percy fell back against the wall. Searching for anything on the wall to grab ahold of, he couldn’t tell if his heart was beating or not anymore.

Percy slid down to rest on the floor, breathing heavily. Black spots flitted against his vision and dizziness was hitting him like a pickup truck.

Percy looked up as the bathroom door slammed open. The sound was as muffled and distorted as the image was. Like he was underwater. Actually, being underwater would make this all a hell of a lot easier.

Someone was shouting his name and he felt cold hands on the side of his face. Those hands started dragging him to the other side of the room and as he coughed up more blood he heard the sound of a sudden rush of water. The sound electrified his brain and it suddenly started working again.

It was Nico who was beside him next to a bathtub, despite his hopeful assumption that it was Annabeth. It should have been Annabeth. He didn’t want Nico seeing him so weak. It was embarrassing.

He tried to voice this opinion, but all that came out was a mumble of “Ann'bth.”

“She’s fine, idiot. She’s guarding this room and told me to go check on you because she got a really bad feeling. She decided she shouldn’t be the one to check because she didn’t want to go into a Tartarus flashback and make the situation worse. Which was honestly really responsible of her. She loves you a lot.” Nico said through gritted teeth as he filled the tub with water. “I get flashbacks too but I think right now I’m better suited for this job.”

Percy didn’t say anything because he felt like if he opened his mouth he might be sick. But now he was feeling like he was glad it was Nico and not Annabeth. Nico could take this. If he died, it would be okay, because Nico practically spoke death. If he died with Annabeth here, who knows what kind of horrific demigod powers she would unleash onto the whole world.

“Alright, we’re getting you in here.” Nico said, shutting off the water and turning to Percy, “I’ll help you get in but then you gotta get the rest of that shit out on your own.”

Percy nodded and took Nico’s now outstretched hand to help him hoist himself into the bathtub. The moment his flesh hit the water bliss flowered through his system for a brief few seconds. Fortunately, those seconds were all he needed to find the strength to lower himself fully into the water.

“Okay. I’ll be here the whole time. You got this, dude,” Nico said.

Percy nodded.

It was time to get serious.

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_(Leo POV)_

“Hades!” Leo yelled as he rounded another corner, “I need to talk to you!”

He’d been running for…he actually didn’t know how long. It felt like a few hours but the somewhat logical part of his mind told him it was around five minutes. Anyway, he needed to find Nico’s smelly bad dad.

Leo clenched his fist. He wasn’t gonna let that guy keep Percy here. They were going back to Camp Half Blood after this, and he swore on the gods that he’d have all his friends with him when they returned.

Leo slammed into a wall abruptly, making an Oof! sound as he bounced off of it and fell backwards onto the floor. Damn. Maybe he should watch where he’s going next time instead of dramatically looking ay his clenched fist while thinking of his friends.

“Shame you got your father’s looks.” A voice drawled from behind him.

Leo shuffled to his feet, “I could say the same to you but I’m not feeling too petty today.”

He faced the source of the voice and was not surprised in the least.

Hades.

“You can’t keep Percy here.”

Getting to the point was one of Leo’s specialties. Actually, it wasn’t really, but he could pretend because he was kind of in a hurry.

Hades’ eyes narrowed.

“He’s coming back with us no matter what, and I doubt the guys up on Olympus would let you get away with it.”

Leo lowered himself into a battle stance, lighting his hands on fire. If he had to, he’d fight the god of death. Not really something he’d spent his life wanting to do, but if push came to shove he would be ready.

“I know.”

Leo looked at him incredulously.

“What?”

“You heard me, boy. You think Poseidon would really let me keep that guy? You think I want them all against me again? No way. You also think that Athena girl actually talked with my brother? I know a bluff when i see one, kid. I’m not an idiot.” Hades scoffed, rolling his eyes.

“Then…you don’t want to kill us?”

“Well, not necessarily. I did want to see that Percy Jackson down on his knees, and this place has been boring recently. But it’s not like I want to kill you, I just don’t care if you die.”

“…Is Nico in on this?”

“No.” Hades turned away, “So there you have it, Poseidon’s son is yours to take back to the surface, blah blah blah…Well, if he doesn’t die, that is.”

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_(Percy POV)_

This was

Excruciating.

Percy was grateful for the water in the bathtub against his skin; it was the only thing keeping him conscious. That and Nico gripping his free hand hard enough to break the bones. Percy’s non-free hand was against his chest coaxing poison out of his skin and into the bathwater. Nico had left the tub faucet on and the drain uncorked. Fresh water flowing in while poisoned bloody water slid down the drain.

Who knew the Underworld would have such convenient bathtubs.

Percy heard himself grunt painfully as he pulled a huge glob of sickness from the cut on his stomach. The air was hot and thick with the smell of putrid decay, and his breathing was getting shorter. Beside him, still holding his hand, Nico was muttering encouraging words that barely registered in Percy’s mind.

When would this be over? How much poison was there? Percy took a deep breath and Nico squeezed his hand again as he felt the pull in his gut. He must have hit something, because the pain and heat that accompanied this section of poison had his brain fuzzy and a scream in his throat. He ferociously pushed it out through his pores, thrashing in the tub. It hurt so much. Holy gods. What was this - get it out get it out get it out he wanted to die he wanted to die he wanted to die he wanted to-

Suddenly there was nothing.

No ringing of his own screams in his ears. No molten lava feeling down his belly. No rise and fall of his own chest.

Only Nico’s harsh breathing and his uncharacteristically shaken sounding words.

“Percy! Breathe! You gotta breathe! Listen to me, breathe! You need to breathe! Right now!”

His lungs burned.

“Breathe! Percy!”

Tears squeezed their way out of his eyes and he opened his mouth, trying to breathe. Nico desperately rubbing his back, still talking but Percy noted somewhere in his brain that he was momentarily deaf. Trying to get his lungs to inflate, he opened his mouth again and forced a gasp.

Then he doubled over as blood gushed up out through his throat and through his teeth down into the water of the tub. Nico was screaming in the background, getting to his feet and waving his arms in panic. The putrid, rotting smell of blood and poison spilling out of his mouth was enough to give anybody intense nausea. Someone was screaming his name. Tears spilled steadily out from his closed eyelids at the raw smell. As it seemed to slow, Percy descended into a fit of coughing, no longer retching but each wrack of his body sending more of the stuff up out of his mouth into the tub.

As everything subsided, they both sat in only the sound of running water as little by little everything disappeared down the drain. Blood dripped down Percy’s chin and things gradually came back into focus. The wet feeling of his shorts clinging to his legs, drenched in water, sweat, blood, and poison. The slick feeling of water between his fingers. His hair matted to his head with sweat, his lungs inflating and deflating shakily but without the threat of stopping. Nico at his side gripping the side of the tub with one hand so tightly his already pale skin was white as paper. Percy blinked, coughing one last time; to his surprise nothing came up.

Tentatively, he put a hand against his bruised abdomen and forced his gut to pull. He wanted this over with. He didn’t care if he destroyed his body getting it out. He needed it out. Now. Now, now, now. Percy pressed his fingertips to his skin and closed his eyes, searching for another pocket of poison.

Minutes seemed to tick by before he realized there was none. He couldn’t find any more.

No more poison.

He tried again, searching for the pockets and spots of sludelike, sticky black liquid.

There was nothing. No poison. No black, smelly sludge leeching off his insides, sliding through his veins. His hand dropped to his side with a splash. He didn’t know whether to be happy, surprised, relieved, or to just excuse himself to sit by himself to stare at his hands for a good few hours. It was over. Tartarus’ plague on his body was over.

He could feel Nico’s obsidian eyes staring him down intently, waiting for a sign of any kind. Percy slowly turned and looked at him, eyes wide. Even without words, what he was trying to say must have been written all over his face because the grin that broke out on Nico’s face was the largest one Percy had ever seen him make.

They both sat and laughed breathily for a minute. It was over. It was finally over.

“I’m not dead,” Percy said, out of breath, a small smile finding itself both on his face and in his voice.

Nico grinned again, standing up and brushing off his jeans, “Good, cause, for a minute there you almost were.”

 


	13. All At Once

_(Annabeth POV)_

 

Seeing the door to the room open to reveal two in-tact demigods was like seeing a dream. Annabeth was sitting right outside the door on the floor beside a pike of inanimate skeletal warriors, standing up slowly as Nico and Percy approached.

 

Percy. She breathed out a breath she’d been holding for two hours at least. He was alive. Annabeth felt stupid for ever doubting him, he was Percy, for Gods’ sakes. You could trap that kid in an erupting volcano and he’d still get out alive. She would know, she was there when that exact circumstance happened years ago.

 

He was being partially held up by Nico, and despite looking like he’d been through twenty consecutive fist fights, she could tell by his expression that he was much more awake and much better feeling than he’d been in weeks. Months, maybe. Percy had never disclosed if he’d been feeling symptoms before it got really bad, that was just how he was. It was something really, really frustrating about him, but it was just how he was.

 

Her idiot, stupid boyfriend who was always almost getting himself killed.

 

Her idiot, stupid boyfriend who all she wanted was to hold him for a few hours.

 

“Percy… oh my gods,” She breathed, stepping close so she could wrap her hands around him and press his face to her shoulder. She decided that she didn’t even care that he had blood all over his face, “Are you okay?”

 

“Yeah. Yes,” Percy croaked from his position against her shoulder, “I don’t think I’ll ever get the taste of blood out of my mouth, but, y'know.”

 

“I have ambrosia.” Annabeth pulled back from him and shuffled through her backpack, taking out a baggie of ambrosia squares and pressing them into his hand.

 

He took them and stuffed three into his mouth like he was starving. Annabeth smiled, before her eyes landed on the blood soaked front of his t-shirt and she realized something.

 

“Do you have-”

 

“There’s no open wounds, don’t worry,” Nico said, speaking up for the first time. He was covered in blood too, mostly his arms and in blotches on his black shirt Annabeth could see a faint wet shimmer. “I had some medical stuff and we patched him up. He’s good to go.”

 

Nico abruptly cringed at his own words, “Err… Well, maybe not.”

 

Percy and Nico exchanged glances and both their faces fell.

 

“Yeah. The deal with Hades.” Percy kicked a stray skeleton bone on the floor, “Dude, Nico, your dad sucks.”

 

That’s when Percy turned his seagreen eyes to Annabeth, but they were not warm and not trusting.

 

Her heart sank.

 

“Now that I have a chance to ask…why didn’t you tell me you talked with my dad?”

 

He looked betrayed and she felt guilt rising in the back of her throat.

 

“Truth is… I didn’t. I came up with that plan on the spot,” Annabeth confessed, twisting a lock of her golden curls around her finger, “I didn’t know what to do, I thought he’d say no.”

 

“So… you didn’t talk to my dad?”

 

“No. I haven’t heard from him this entire time, I swear.”

 

Percy looked away in thought, pressing his fingers against his mouth, “Wow, I… don’t know what to think about that. I mean, I’m glad that you weren’t talking with him behind my back about selling me to Hades…but…”

 

“But that means he hasn’t said or acknowledged anything about any of this.” Nico finished.

 

“It’s like he doesn’t care.”

 

“Percy…our parents are gods…you know that. There’s been times before when they’ve completely ignored us. It’s just how it is.” Annabeth said softly, putting a hand on her boyfriend’s shoulder.

 

Percy didn’t shrug her off, but he didn’t make any reaction to her. “I was dying, like, for real this time. And he doesn’t even send a letter or even a message, not even a ‘Hey, son! Looks like you’re dying! Sucks, bro. Have fun with that. Love, Dad.”

 

Annabeth bit her lip. Percy was right, Poseidon hadn’t even sent a sign that he was concerned in the least for his only demigod son’s life. Of course he was upset about it.

 

But on the other hand, he was overreacting. This wasn’t like him. Or… maybe he was.

 

Annabeth mentally slapped herself, of course he wasn’t acting like himself - this time was different from his other near-death experiences. Other times, almost dying for him had been sudden, fleeting, and unprecedented. And those times happened a lot - such was the life of a half-blood. What was different about this time was that Percy had been aware he was dying for weeks. Everyone at camp knew. He had been dying and there was no foreseeable quick fix, no way to fight himself out of it on pure talent or skill alone. He had been trapped.

 

“…You’re right. I’m sorry.”

 

“It’s cool, don’t worry about it,” Percy shrugged, “I don’t wanna think about it too hard.”

 

He was lying, Annabeth could tell. Not about forgiving her, but about not thinking about it. He’d already thought about it too hard.

 

Sometimes Annabeth really hated having godly parents.

 

“…We should get going.” Nico said in a low voice, gesturing down the hall.

 

“…Okay,” Percy agreed after a minute, “But you guys are gonna have to help me, cause my legs don’t wanna move.”

 

0000000000

 

_(Hazel POV)_

 

Her arm hurt. Hazel realized that dully as she and Frank began walking back to Persephone’s garden. Her arm didn’t feel bad because she was cut or bleeding or anything, it was because she pulled a muscle in it by swinging her sword around with so much force.

 

In the end, the skeletal Underworld soldiers hadn’t been much to blink at. Their numbers were the only overwhelming thing about them; once she and Frank had bulldozed through about fifty of them, they’d become a lot less scary. They were weak, really, compared to some of the things Hazel had been up against during her lifetime…err… second lifetime.

 

Hazel jogged a little to catch up with Frank, whose step size was probably around two or three rimes the size of her’s. He murmured an embarrassed apology and she waved him off with a smile.

 

“Do you think Percy’s okay?” Frank asked, his voice tone failing to hide that he was nervous.

 

“He’ll be okay, he’s gotten out of tons of stuff like this before, right? I’m sure Annabeth and Nico won’t let anything bad happen.” Hazel said confidently. Inside, she shared Frank’s concerns - how could they know for sure? Up until just a little while ago, Hazel had been pretty certain the son of Poseidon was invincible. He was basically the prince of the sea, right? He could survive anything.

 

At least, thats what she thought right up until she saw that trail of fresh blood heading deep into the forest.

 

It was a chilling thought. Hazel slapped her cheeks once to clear her mind and Frank jumped, startled at the sound. It would be okay. Percy would be just fine!

 

They were hit with air that was slightly more fresh when they reached the end of the corridor, coming out into Persephone’s garden. It looked exactly like how they left it, if you didn’t count the very obvious path that looked like it had been torn through by a relatively large weedwhacker.

 

“Hazel! Frank!” A familiar voice called from somewhere down the choppy path, and through the brush Piper appeared with several leaves stuck in her hair.

 

“Piper!” Hazel exclaimed, closing the distance between them with a hug, “How’s Jason? And where’s Leo?”

 

“Jason’s fine,” Piper said, and Hazel plucked a leaf out of her braid, “He’s a little out of it still but not too much.”

 

“What about Leo?”

 

“I’m getting there, Hazel. Leo left. He went back into the castle. I’m assuming he either went to help Annabeth or went to find Hades.” Piper glanced towards the entrance Hazel and Frank had just come out of, “Who knows where he is.”

 

“Should we go look for him?” Frank asked.

 

“No, let’s wait here. If the four of us stick together then we’ll have a better chance of getting out of here quicker,” Piper explained, “Annabeth and Nico will come out this way, most likely. I hope, anyways. We’ll meet up with them and hopefully Leo will find his way back here.”

 

Hazel and Frank nodded as Piper gestured to follow her into the bushes, leading them to Jason.

 

It went unsaid, but all present demigods were aware that Piper didn’t mention Percy’s name even once, and they knew why. Without a doubt, the situation was impossible to read. Percy’s survival was not guaranteed. Each of them had realized that at their own pace.

 

Hazel felt leaves crunch under her sneakers. She felt numb, and hated it. Feeling powerless reminded her of the first time she died, and of her mother. Unwanted feelings and unwanted memories, all mixed together. The trace memories of sadness, fear, and hopelessness. Hazel wondered if that’s how Percy felt when anyone mentioned Tartarus.

 

In the back of her mind she knew that what she felt was not what Percy felt.

 

Whatever he felt when he thought about Tartarus was much, much worse, and very, very different. She’d never be able to understand just what happened to him to make this happen. His sickness on top of the mental weight of inescapable post traumatic stress.

 

All she really knew was that Percy was so much stronger than anyone ever gave him credit for.

 

“Hey, guys.” Jason said from the ground as the three demigods sat down with him.

 

“What happened to you, exactly?” Frank asked.

 

Hazel was about to ask the same thing. Jason’s purple shirt was covered in dirt and he was bleeding from several tiny wounds. Nothing fatal, or even severe. His hair didn’t look so great either, sprinkled with dirt and looking like it needed a shower just as much as Hazel felt like she needed herself. He just looked like he had a bad day, and spent a good part of it rolling around in the woods.

 

“That’s….kinda complicated. Okay, so, you see those plants over there?…”

 

0000000000

 

_(Nico POV)_

 

With an arm propping up one side of Percy, Nico was lost in thought as they made their way back to Hades’ throne room. What had happened today was something he’d probably remember for the rest of his life.

 

Nico vaguely heard the soft sounds of the three demigods’ sneakers against the gray stone hallway floor. Percy really did almost die in there. He felt it - how couldn’t he? He was right next to him, Percy was literally dying right before his eyes.

 

Nico’s thoughts at that point had been a mess. All he could do was wave his arms and scream at Percy to breathe.

 

All he could feel was the very familiar crawl of impending death. Feeling that was like second nature to him, he’d just never expected to feel it so strongly and from the guy who he’d once believed to be the true epitome of a hero. He’d learned the hard way that Percy really was a hero, but heroes were not invincible, and they were definitely not perfect.

 

Nico glanced up at Percy as he repositioned Poseidon’s arm across the back of his neck. He was looking worse for wear, but somehow more alive. There was no more sharp sense of doom that invaded Nico’s senses when he so much as looked at him.

 

To be honest? Nico wasn’t sure if they’d be coming out of the Underworld with a live, breathing Percy Jackson. To be even more honest, he was unbelievably glad he didn’t lose a friend today.

 

That was enough honesty though, and they would be at the throne room very soon. Nico wondered where the others were. He had total faith that Hazel and Frank would be able to handle the enemies, but he wasn’t so sure about the other three.

 

He hoped Jason hadn’t killed them in his weird flower-poison haze. Not that he didn’t think Leo and Piper could handle themselves, he just personally wouldn’t want to go up against the son of Zeus. Dude might have been an idiot and got a stapler scar on his lip when he was just a baby but Nico knew he was much stronger than his soft blue eyes said he was.

 

“We’ve been walking forever,”

 

“Percy, you’re barely even walking. We’re basically carrying you. And it’s only been fifteen minutes.” Annabeth said from the other side of the son of Poseidon.

 

“It’s been sixteen minutes.” Percy retorted.

 

“How do you know that?”

 

“I’ve been counting.”

 

“You don’t count.”

 

There was a pause, “You are correct.”

 

Nico sighed in exasperation but couldn’t quite manage to suppress his small smile. It was good to know despite nearly dying Percy didn’t lose his unbearably obnoxious attitude.

 

When they reached the enormous room and stepped inside, Nico was relieved to see his dad wasn’t there. That guy was so mad at him for coming in through the garden, it was unbelievable.

 

Grounded. Nico rolled his eyes. Hades grounded him at least twice a week while he was living here and it never really meant anything.

 

Hades wasn’t a bad guy, he actually tried to be a semi-good parent compared to the other gods on Olympus. It’s just, he’s Hades, and you can’t really expect much from him in that field. Persephone was alright, though, even if she was a little put off that Nico himself was the direct result of her husband cheating on her. Anyways, Nico could live with it.

 

What he couldn’t live with, however, was Percy being trapped in the Underworld for the rest of his life to be used by Hades as some kind of messenger boy.

 

That was kinda messed up, and friends don’t let friends becomes Hades messenger boys.

 

“Guys!”

 

Nico jolted in surprise as something smoking fell from the sky right in front of him.

 

It was Leo. Somehow Nico wasn’t too surprised, especially after everything that had happened already that day.

 

“Hey Percy, I’m glad you’re still alive - Woah!” He patted out a patch of his hair that was on fire, “Not that I actually thought you were gonna die.”

 

“Leo!” Annabeth and Percy cries, and Nico followed with a “I thought you were outside with Piper!”

 

“Err…We had a change of plans.” Leo said before gesturing for the to follow him across the floor to an opposing corridor, “And now we’re gonna have another one. We need to get out of here, like, right now.”

 

“But Hades-” Annabeth started before Leo cut her off.

 

“Don’t worry, it’s all taken care of.”

 

“What did you do?” Nico asked as he bent down to hoist Percy up into a piggyback ride again. He couldn’t keep up with Leo otherwise and Annabeth shoved her boyfriend up onto him.

 

“You know, I never wanted to piggyback Nico but it’s not so bad. Its like riding a pony. Except more awkward, and like being stabbed over and over. Dude, your bones are sharp.”

 

“Percy, if you compare me to a pony again I’m going to drop you.”

 

“You’re just as rude as one,” Percy muttered before Leo spoke again.

 

“I talked to Hades and it turns out he never planned on keeping Percy here,” Everyone gasped and he held up his hands as they ran, “Wait, before you say anything, let me finish. Okay so, he lied, okay, and I was like, not cool man. So then I kinda..kinda set the hallway on fire. And it kinda spread. Everywhere.”

 

“Oh my gods.” Annabeth growled.

 

“I’m sorry! I was mad! But anyways, we need to get out of here, cause now he’s pissed.”

 

They turned a corner and sprinted down the hall, sneakers echoing off the side of the walls. Nico was falling behind. Running with a full grown eighteen year old on your back sucked. He ran harder, and twisted to slap Percy when he said, “Giddy up.”

 

Nico wished he could just shadow travel them out, which was entirely possible, just traveling with all those people would definitely wipe him out at this point. If he wanted to shadow travel anywhere right now he’d need help.

 

Anyways, he needed to save his energy to shadow travel all of them out of here once they met up with the rest of their friends.

 

He’d shadow traveled Reyna and a gigantic statue of Annabeth’s mom across the Earth in less than two weeks. He was sure he could shadow travel some kids out of the underworld. Especially with Hazel’s help.

 

That was when Nico felt heat on the back of his arms. Sweltering, hot, dangerous. He turned for a split second to see what was happening.

 

And was met with the sight of flames racing towards them.

 

“This is awesome,” Percy said, in a very genuine voice, so genuine Nico wanted to slap him again.

 

“This is serious, Percy!”

 

“Dude, I just survived an incurable Tartarus plague that was killing me from the inside out. It totally sucked. I almost died like, eight times in the past week. But I didn’t. I’m alive and my mom’s totally gonna freak out at me. Shouldn’t I be allowed to live in that a little bit?”

 

Nico groaned out loud.

 

He couldn’t help but agree.

 

0000000000

 

_(Leo POV)_

 

Okay, maybe he lied a little bit.

 

He wasn’t mad when Hades the fact that Leo’s friend was dying like it was nothing, he was furious. Sure… maybe Leo and Percy hadn’t seen eye to eye more than a few times, maybe there were times when Leo had even disliked the guy, but he was his friend. Friends didn’t let friends die. Friends also didn’t let the lord of the dead shit talk their dying friends.

 

So yeah, he hadn’t made the best choice of what to do with the anger he felt. Lashing out at a god and purposefully going into rooms and setting them ablaze was a great plan at the time - until he realized his friends were still in the building. And that none of them were fireproof. Oops.

 

Leo really did feel bad about it, not that he would let the others know. Endangering the friend he was trying to save along with all his other friends…way to go.

 

He willed the flames back as much as he could and when they reached the exit into the garden he halted, letting his friends race past him and turned his face towards the heat. Holding his hands out in front of him, he pushed it back, flames licking his hands warmly as he lowered them into smoke at the floor.

 

Sure, parts of the hallway were still on fire and he was tired as hell (haha, get it?) but the immediate danger was quelled.

 

“Thanks, man.” Percy said from behind him and Leo turned to give him a grin.

 

“We have to find the others,” Annabeth said, “We can’t know for sure if everybody’s in the garden, but I don’t know how much longer we can stay here before Hades gets mad.”

 

“I’m pretty sure we’re already pushing that.” Leo quipped as he reached into his belt to take out a few small mechanical parts to mess with. It was kind of a nervous tick. He couldn’t help it.

 

“That’s only cause you set his house on fire.” Annabeth pointed out before turning and stepping into the flowery brush.

 

Leo shrugged and gave Nico and Percy a sideways smile, to which Percy gave him a thumbs up and Nico looked like he was about to superglue his hand to his own face but couldn’t because he still had a son of Poseidon on his back.

 

“Nico! Percy!” A familiar high voice cried out as Leo watched a bundle of dark skin and honey hair crash out from the leaves and attempt to embrace Percy and Nico at the same time. Quite a feat, Leo decided.

 

Nico put Percy down and Hazel hugged them properly this time, looking like she wanted to cry.

 

Leo didn’t blame her. This whole quest was a mess. If you could even consider it a quest; it felt a little more obligatory than that.

 

“So,” Jason’s voice came out from the trees as he, Frank, and Piper stepped out, “How are we getting out of here?”

 

Oh. Leo hadn’t thought of that. They couldn’t exactly get out the same way they came in…that was for sure.

 

Nico stepped forwards and motioned for them to circle around him, “Okay, so here’s the plan.”

 

0000000000

 

_(Nico POV)_

 

He’d shadow traveled with this many people before, and with Hazels help again it was maybe even easier than before during the war.

 

Again, he found himself holding Percy’s hand. But this time no painful or guilty feelings accompanied the feeling of his skin. Nico realized with a pleasant feeling in his stomach that the only feeling he felt in regards to Percy was purely non-romantic. It had taken him awhile to get to this point and to realize that pining after the son of Poseidon was a dead end at best.

 

All he cared about now was that Percy was his friend, and even though he was out of immediate danger, Nico wasn’t about to screw up his shadow travel and drop him somewhere by accident.

 

Shadow traveling was always better with another person with him, or rather, a bunch of people with him. It was less lonely, not that he minded being alone.

 

Not that he minded not being alone either.

 

He’d shadow travelled out of the Underworld before, multiple times, really, now that he thought about it. It was one of the main ways to get in and out, even for Hades himself. And now that Percy wasn’t potentially going to die from the stress of it, it was the best way to go.

 

So here they were, deep in the rush of adrenaline and frostbite that made up the joy of shadow travel.

 

It was only seconds, but it felt like forever, an infinity of time stretching out before he felt his sneakers land softly on grass, wind billowing his dark hair.

 

Camp Half-Blood.

 

This time, instead of immediately shaking Percy’s hand off, he gave it a light squeeze.

 

0000000000

 

_(Percy POV)_

 

The sharp, crisp smell of fresh air bombarded Percy’s senses as shadow travel dropped them off on a grassy hill.

 

In the distance, the camp was busy as usual. Campers scurrying from place to place, sparring, eating, satyrs flirting with the nature spirits. Friendly Cabin wars that weren’t so friendly once you got up close, old friends and new friends running to the lake, the smell of strawberries in the air.

 

Rachel sitting out on the porch of the Big House, saying something to some kid while taking sips of a forgotten Diet Coke inbetween words. Chiron’s familar shape showing new campers how to hold their swords properly. Sun shining, not a cloud in the sky.

 

Home.

 

A whinny from above snapped him out of his daze as the group let go of each others hands to make way for a massive black flurry crashing down in the middle of their circle.

 

Boss!

 

“Blackjack!” Percy exclaimed, reaching forward to ruffle his old friend’s mane.

 

You look awful.

 

Percy snorted but didn’t answer. Annabeth laughed when the pegasus turned to her to sniff for treats, a sound he realized he missed more than the sweet smell of home.

 

“Well, I guess this is it.” Piper smiled softly.

 

“It’s been a wild ride.” Percy agreed as Jason lightheartedly bumped his shoulder.

 

“I can’t tell if I’m happy to see you all or not. Especially you, Mr. Johnson.”

 

The group turned to see Dionysus approaching, face turned up in his usual light sneer. For once, to Percy’s surprise, the sight of him was accompanied with a strange sense of comfort.

 

“Mr. D, we-”

 

Dionysus cut Annabeth off by holding up a hand, taking a deep breath, “I already heard, don’t worry. Hades wants a payment compensation for the damage done on his home.” He sent a pointed look at Leo who grinned, clearly embarrassed.

 

“Sorry.” He said, still grinning. He may be embarrassed but Percy could tell Leo was obviously not sorry.

 

“Well, what’s done is done.” Mr. D sighed, rolling his eyes.

 

That’s when the God of wine pressed an envelope into Percy’s hand. He glanced at the God and back to the paper before taking it apprehensively. Was this Hades official word on how much money he wanted or something? Doctor’s bill from Apollo? He looked at the sender’s address.

 

_Mount Olympus, 600th floor_

_Empire State Building_

_New York, NY_

 

His breath caught in his throat, but he made no move to open it.

 

“Is this…from…my-”

 

“Your father. Poseidon, yes. It arrived this morning, and I really wasn’t going to give it to you, but figured that wouldn’t go over very well with the rest of them.” Mr. D sighed impatiently like just explaining that was enough work for the day.

 

“Dude, open it.” Nico urged from beside him, looking like the anticipation was about to eat him alive.

 

Percy stared down at the letter.

 

White, crisp paper topped with black ink and impossibly neat cursive. A blue seal with the trident mark of his father gazing up at him.

 

Percy brought it in front of him, and ripped it in half.

 

Everyone gasped as he let go of the two halves of the letter and they floated away in the fresh breeze.

 

“Bro,” Jason said in the stunned silence, “I hope you don’t regret that.”

 

Frank looked like he was trying pick his jaw off the ground. “You…ripped it in half. Your dad’s letter. You’ve been waiting for him to say something for like, months.”

 

“Yeah,” Percy shrugged.

 

“Then….why…?” Leo squeaked.

 

“Because it doesn’t matter.” Hazel said for him, and he gave her a nod of gratitude. “It’s over now.”

 

“There’s nothing he could even say now to change anything.” Percy spoke, “Like Hazel said, it’s over. But the thing is, even if I’m not gonna read it, it does matter. It matters because its always been this way, he’s just reminding me where we stand.”

 

He met the blank, lost faces of his friends.

 

“What.” Nico blanked.

 

“The gods are our parents, yeah. But banking on them paying attention to us will get us nowhere. We need to stand up and save ourselves on our own. Like its always been.”

 

“So…basically, your dad’s a dick and you don’t care.” Leo added.

 

“That too.”

 

Percy looked at his friends as Blackjack nuzzled the back of his neck for attention. He’d….he’d almost died, like, for real this time. If it wasn’t for these seven demigods…he might not be here right now. They cared enough about him to leave behind the safety of a post-war world to try to save his life. They cared enough about each other to stay side by side to try to save one friend.

 

That was huge.

 

He didn’t need any gods or godly powers when he had them.

 

“Well, what are you waiting for? There’s things to be done! Cabins to clean, games to lose, and quests to die doing.” Mr. D scolded, his voice taking on its usual rude bite. Percy was so glad to be home.

 

“Well, you heard the man.” Frank said, taking Hazel’s hand gently in his own and starting down the hill. Hazel gave Percy a sweet smile and he found himself beaming back.

 

As his friends dispersed down the hill and Dionysus disappeared in a poof of smoke and grapes, he was left alone with Annabeth and Nico.

 

“Well…I guess this is it. Peace at last. We did it.” Percy said, putting a hand on Blackjack’s neck as the pegasus pawed at the ground.

 

“No, Percy. You did it.” Nico corrected, grinning a real, genuine smile that Percy wasn’t sure he’d ever be used to.

 

“He’s right,” Annabeth agreed, pressing her hand into his, squeezing, “In the end…it was all you. I have a feeling it always was.” Percy’s heart melted.

 

But she wasn’t right.

 

He couldn’t have done anything without them, even for himself.

 

“You guys seriously underestimate how much you did back there.”

 

Nico laughed, “No dude, I know the part I played. I don’t think I’ll forget the smell for months.”

 

Percy rolled his eyes, feeling another smile creep onto his lips as he nodded in agreement.

 

“Well, I gotta get going,” Nico said, gesturing over his shoulder to the camp, “Gaea might be gone but that doesn’t mean evil took a break from doing its thing.”

 

“No kidding.”

 

Nico grinned and he was gone in a flash of darkness, shadow traveling back to camp instead of walking there. Typical.

 

He stood with Annabeth in silence for a loaded few minutes before she pulled him into a tight hug. He melted into her, burying his face in her shoulder.

 

“Don’t ever almost die like that ever again,” She whispered, tightening her hug even further.

 

“I won’t.”

 

“Promise me, Seaweed Brain.”

 

“I pinky promise, Wise Girl,” He said as she released him from the hug and he playfully linked their pinkies together. “You can’t break a pinky promise.”

 

She smiled, and he smiled back. Before he could register it, suddenly she was kissing him.

 

As he closed his eyes, put his arms around her, and felt Blackjack roll his eyes beside him, nothing felt wrong. Nothing felt out of place.

 

He pulled back and pressed their foreheads together before turning to look back over Camp Half Blood.

 

As the wind blew his hair back, Percy knew, as sure as the strawberry scent in the air, as sure as the lake water lapping at the canoes, as sure as the clear laughter of demigods finally having a place to call their own.

 

He was home.

 

Nothing and everything would be the same, all at once. All at once, a chapter of his life was ending, and another was beginning. His friends were here, the shadows of the war were put to rest, everyone was safe.

 

Of course, Percy knew since he was twelve years old that the path of a demigod could never be easy.

 

There would always be monsters and quests, there would always be one more evil to vanquish.

 

As Annabeth laced her fingers with his, he knew.

 

All at once, for the first time in a long time, everything would be okay.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that concludes the story. I hope you enjoyed it just as much as I enjoyed writing it. I just couldn't let the Blood Of Olympus be the last we really saw of the real Percy - so I wrote this to conclude what I thought would wrap up the story for good. I started reading The Lightening Thief when I was 12, the same age as Percy was at the time and I finished Blood Of Olympus as I turned 17. It's a little funny, I almost consider myself to have grown up with these characters. They're kind of like old friends and I'm glad I got to write this not-so-little fic about them.
> 
> Thank you so much for reading this story all the way through, and please leave a review of what you thought! I'd love to write another story someday - though I'm not sure what it'll be about!
> 
> Happy endings make the world go round!


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